792 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
amendment moved by my Friend, Mr. Nichols Roy. The draft of this article does seem to give the impression that until Parliament determines each year what the grants are to be, the President will have no power to do so. That certainly is not the intention of the Drafting Committee. The Drafting Committee would like the President to exercise his powers of making grants under article 255 even before Parliament has made any determination of this matter. And in order to make this position quite clear, I am, as I said before, prered to accept the amendment moved by Mr. Nichols Roy. I would, however, at this stage, like to say that I have not yet had sufficient time to examine the exact language he has put in his amendment; and therefore, subject to the reservation that the Drafting Committee would have the liberty to change the language in order to suit the text as it stands in article 255, I am prepared to accept his amendment.
Mr. President : I will now put the amendments to vote.
[All the amendments of Dr. Ambedkar, as given above, were adopted.]
Mr. President : And then I put Rev. Nichols Roy’s amendment. The question is :
“That in article 255,—
(a) after the words ‘Parliament may by law provide ‘the words ‘or until Parliament thus provides, as may be prescribed by the President’ be inserted ;
(b) after the words ‘Parliament may determine’ the words ‘or until Parliament determines as the President may determine’ be inserted ; and
(c) the following Explanation be added at the end of the article :—
“ Explanation. —The word “prescribed “has the same meaning as in article 251 (4)( b ).”
The amendment was adopted.
[Article 255, as amended, was added to the Constitution.]
ARTICLE 256
*Mr. President : We now take up article 256. Amendment No. 2925 by Dr. Ambedkar, in Vol. II, of the printed list.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move :
“That for clause (1) of article 256 the following-clause be substituted:—
‘(1) Notwithstanding anything in article 217 of this Constitution, no law of the legislature of a State relating to taxes for the benefit of the State or of a municipality, district borad, local board or other local authority therein, in respect
- CAD, Vol. IX, dated 9th August 1949, p. 301.