DRAFT CONSTITUTION 815
The question, therefore, may be asked as to why is it that we are now, giving the power to the Governor-General. The difficulty, if I may say so, is this. Somehow when the Government of India Act, 1935, came to be adapted after the Independence Act, there was, in my judgment, at any rate, a slip that took place and that slip was this, that this power which originally vested in His Majesty in Council, logically speaking, ought to have been transferred to the Governor-General, because the GovernorGeneral under the Dominion law stepped into the shoes of His Majesty in Council. But, unfortunately, as I said, what happened was this that in adapting this Section 291, the power which we are now giving to the Governor-General was given to the local Legislature, I will read that adapted Section 291. I ask my friends who have been agitating over this to read the section as adapted. This is how it reads :
“In so far as provision with respect to matters herein mentioned is not made in this Act in relation lo any Povincial Legislature, provision may he made by Act of that Legislature with respect to those matters or any of them, etc.. etc.”
It has now been discovered that that was an error, that really speaking, when the section was adapted at that stage, the Governor-General should have been endowed with those powers, because those powers under the provisions of Section 291 were vested in His Majesty in Council and not in any local legislature what we are doing by this Bill is merely to restore the old position as it existed under the unadapted Section 291. I, therefore, want to submit that any criticism which has been levelled by any Member of the Assembly that there was some kind of a deep-laid game in order to upset the constitution for political motives is absolutely unwarranted. All that we are trying to do is to correct a slip that had taken place then.
I come to the next point, namely, the addition of the words “the composition of the Chamber or Chambers of the legislature.” I quite agree……*
Dr. P. S. Deshmukh : May I ask one question, Sir ? Does not the alteration of the words “in so far as provision with respect to matters hereinafter mentioned is not made by this Act”, the ommission of these words and making of these provisions applicable to……..
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That is what exactly I am explaining. As I said, the only difference that will now be found between the original article 291 as unadapted and the proposed new clause is this that it is proposed by this new article to give power to the GovernorGeneral to alter the provisions with regard to the composition of the Legislature. I admit that that is a change.
*Dots indicate interruption.