742 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
House. It also lays down further in a proviso, “Provided that the total number of members in a Legislative Council of a State shall in no case be less than forty.” How these two can be reconciled in particular cases passes my understanding. For instance, we have adopted article 148……
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I would ask the honourable Member to read article 167 again.
Shri H. V. Kamath : I am talking of the next point.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : What about the first point ? Do you favour it ?
Shri H. V. Kamath : I do not favour it. Dr. Ambedkar says that article 167 lays down the disqualifications…….
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Both for the Assembly and the Council of States.
*Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad (West Bengal : Muslim) : ...This clause looked very simple and inoffensive and the effect was that the number of members of the Legislative Council shall not be more than 25 per cent.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I rise on a point of Order. My Friend is criticisng a draft which is not before the House.
“Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I was trying to show how this unsatisfactory state of affairs in today’s amendments arose.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : It is not before the Members.
†The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, there are only two points of comment, which I think call for a reply. The one point of comment, that was made both by Mr. Kamath as well as by my Friend, Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad, was that according to the proposal now placed before the House, there is a certain amount of disproportion between the membership of the Upper House and the membership of the Lower House in certain provinces. He cited the instance. I believe, if I heard him correctly, that in the province of Orissa, the members of the Lower House, on the principles which we have laid down in article 149 of the Constitution, would be near about 60. Consequently, if the minimum for an Upper House was 40, in Orissa the Upper House would be disproportionate to the Lower House in strength. Now, I think my
- CAD, Vol. IX, dated 30th July 1949, p. 27.
† Ibid., pp. 35-37.