DRAFT CONSTITUTION 869
technical terms. We are also taking out of the first part, the words, “against the law of nations” because piracies and crimes are matters which can be regulated by any country by reason of its own legal jurisdiction and authority. It has nothing to do with the law of nations.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, listening to what my honourable Friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad said, I am afraid I have again to say that he has not got a very clear notion of what this entry
22 proposes to do.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : The difficulty was that Dr. Ambedkar was engaged in conversation and did not hear me.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I was no doubt engaged in conversation; but I was quite avadhan to what he was saying.
My Friend first posed the question as to why we should use the term “piracy and crime” in plural. Well, the other way in which we can use piracy and crime would be in collective terms. I think in matters of this sort, where criminal legislation is provided for, it is much better not to use the word in collective form. He cited some examples, but he forgets the fact that in some cases the generic use of the term is quite sufficient; in other cases it is not sufficient. The Drafting Committee, therefore, has deliberately used the word “piracies and crimes” in plural because it is appropriate in the context in which it is used.
My Friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad said as a second count against this entry that there ought to be a semi-colon after ‘Piracies’. Now, that, I think, would distort the meaning and the purport of item 22. Supposing we had a semi-colon after ‘piracies’, ‘piracies ‘ in item 22 would be dissociated from the rest of the entry. Now, if piracies are dissociated from the rest of the entries, it would mean that the centre would have the right to legislate on all piracies, including piracies in inland rivers also. It is not the intention of this entry to give to the Central Legislature the power to legislate on piracies of all sorts. The words “committed on high seas or in the air” are words which not only qualify the word “crime” but they are also intended to qualify the word “piracy”.
Then, the third count of my friend was that we should omit the words “on land, on high seas and in the air” after the words “offences against the law of nations”. That would not make it clear that the second entry is an all-pervasive entry and gives the power contrary to the first part of the entry to the Central Legislature to deal with offences against the law
*CAD, Vol. IX. 30th August 1949, pp. 750-751.