DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 333
therefore, from its recommittal to the same Select Committee. This is the reason which I want to submit before you. After all the taxpayer has to pay for every minute of the time taken in this House and I hate to take a dilatory or obstructionists attitude. All the same . . .
Mr. Tajamul Husain : You are doing it all the same.
An Honourable Member : He is again on the Speaker’s ruling.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I hope the house will bear with me for a little more time . . .
Mr. Deputy Speaker : Is the honourable Member likely to take more time ?
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : Yes, Sir.
( The House rose for lunch )
The Assembly re-assembled’ after Lunch at
Half Past Two of the Clock
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar) in the Chair.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : Sir, when the House rose for Lunch I was submitting for your consideration that the functions of a Select Committee are to go through the text of the Bill word by word ; the function of a Select Committee is to go into the text of the Bill clause by clause, and if necessary, word by word. I would refer to May’s parliamentary Practice.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : May I request the honourable Member to proceed to another point because I have already given a ruling ?
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I respect your ruling. You were pleased to say that you are not going to reverse the ruling given by the Chair and I do not want it to be reversed. As a matter of fact I am unfortunate that I have not been able to make myself fully appreciated. The ruling of the Chair says that this Bill was with the Select Committee at the time when the draft was being considered. I do not dispute that at all. My dispute is that the functions of a Select Committee were that they should have gone through the original Bill clause by clause and word by word. It is not only this. As the House is bound so is the Select Committee bound to consider the Bill clause by clause and word by word.