DRAFT CONSTITUTION 747
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : We shall keep it back for the moment.
Mr. President : Shall we take up No. 175 ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes.
Shri H. V. Kamath : What about 127-A ?
Mr. President : That will come up along with 210.
Let us take up new 175. There are some amendmednts to it.
(Amendments Nos. 16 and 17 were not moved.)
*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, Sir I beg to move that:
‘“That for the proviso to article 175 the following proviso he substituted :—
‘Provided that the Governor may, as soon as possible after the presentation to him of the Bill for assent, return the Bill if it is not a money Bill together with a message requesting that the House or Houses will reconsider the Bill or any specified provisions thereof and, in particular, will consider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as he may recommend in his message, and when a Bill is so returned, the House or Houses shall reconsider the Bill accordingly, and if the Bill is passed again by the House or Houses with or without amendment and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold assent therefrom.’”
Sir, this is in substitution of the old proviso. The old proviso contained three important provisions. The first was that it conferred power on the Governor to return a Bill before assent to the Legislature and recommend certain specific points for consideration. The proviso as it stood left the matter of returning the Bill to the discretion of himself. Secondly, the right to return the Bill with the recommendation was applicable to all Bills including money Bills. Thirdly, the right was given to the Governor to return the Bill only in those cases where the Legislature of a province was unicameral. It was felt then that in a responsible government there can be no room for the Governor acting on discretion therefore the new proviso deletes the word ‘in his discretion’. Similarly it is felt that this right to return the Bill should not be extended to a money Bill and consequently the words ‘if it is not a money Bill’ are introduced. It is also felt that this right of a Governor to return the Bill to the Legislature need not necessarily be confined to cases where the Legislature of the province is unicameral. It is a salutary provision and may be made use of in all cases even where the Legislature of a province is bicameral.
It is to make provision for these three changes that the new proviso is sought to be substituted for the old one, and I hope the House will accept it.
- CAD, Vol. IX, 30th July 1949. pp. 41-42.