912 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
ENTRY 91
*Mr. Naziruddi Ahmad : I shall not move the amendment; but I shall speak on the entry itself.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Why not present the baby with the song? Why the song only? You may move the amendment and make a speech.
†The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, I propose to deal with the objection raised by my friend Sardar Hukam Singh. I do not think he has realised what is the purpose of entry 91 and I should therefore like to state very clearly what the purpose of 91 in List is. It is really to define a limit or scope of List I and I think we could have dealt with this matter, viz., of the definition of and scope of Lists II and III by adding an entry such as 67 which would read :
“Anything not included in List II or III shall be deemed to fall in List I.”
That is really the purpose of it. It could have been served in two different ways, either having an entry such as the one 91 included in List I or to have an entry such as the one which I have suggested— ‘that anything not included in List II or III shall fall in List I’. That is the purpose of it. But such an entry is necessary and there can be no question about it. Now I come to the other objection which has been repeated if not openly at least whispered as to why we are having these 91 entries in List I when as a matter of fact we have an article such as 223 which is called residuary article which is “Parliament has exclusive power to make any law with respect to any matter not enumerated in the Concurrent List or State List”. Theoretically I quite accept the proposition that when anything which is not included in List II or List III is by a specific article of the Constitution handed over to the Centre, it is unnecessary to enumerate these categories which we have specified in List I. The reason why this is done is this. Many States people, and particularly the Indian States at the beginning of the labours of the Constituent Assembly, were very particular to know what are the legislative powers of the Centre. They wanted to know categorically and particularly; they were not going to be satisfied by saying that the Centre will
*CAD, Vol. IX, 1st September 1949, p. 854.
† Ibid., pp. 856-857.