DRAFT CONSTITUTION 765
(d) for the President to promulgate Ordinances under article 102 of this Constitution except when both Houses of Parliament are in session.
(2) Any law made by or under the authority of Parliament which Parliament or the President or other authority referred to in subclause (a) of clause (1) of this article would not, but for the issue of a Proclamation under article 278 of this Constitution, have been competent to make shall to the extent of the incompetency cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of one year after the Proclamation has ceased to operate except as respects things done or omitted to be done before the expiration of the said period unless the provisions which shall so cease to have effect are sooner repealed or re-enacted with or without modification by an Act of the Legislature of the State.”
Shri H. V. Kamath (C.P. and Berar : General) : Article 188 also ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I have said that 188 will be deleted. It is not really necessary to move the amendment, but to give the House an idea of the whole picture I have said that we propose to delete article 188.
Sir, I anticipate that there will be probably a full-dress debate on this article and I may at some stage be called upon to offer explanation of the points of criticism that mighty be raised so that I think it would be right if I did not enter upon a very exhaustive treatment of the various points that arise out of the new scheme. I propose at the outset merely to give an outline of the pattern of things which we provide by the dropping of article 188, by the addition of article
277-A and by the substitution of two new articles 278 and 278-A for the old article 278.
I think I can well begin by reminding the House that it has been agreed by the House, when we were considering general principles of the Constitution, that the Constitution should provide some machinery for the breakdown of the Constitution. In other words, some provision should be introduced in the Constitution which would be somewhat analogous to the provisions contained in section 93 of the Government of India Act, 1935. At the stage when this principle was accepted by the House, it was proposed that if the Governor of the Province feels that the machinery set up by this Constitution for the administration of the affairs of the Province breaks down, the Governor should have the power by Proclamation to take over the administration of the Province himself for a fortnight and thereafter communicate the matter to the President of the Union that the machinery has failed, that he has issued a Proclamation and taken over the administration to himself, and on the report made by the Governor under the original article 188 the President could act under article 278. That was the original scheme.