336 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
kind are fundamental rules which cannot be disobeyed. Then what is the real effect of it? That I am submitting to you. Now the differences or discrepancies between the provisions of the original Bill and the Bill as it has emerged from the Select Committee relate not only to matters of procedure but to matters of great substance. In the Dissenting Note given by Bakshi Tek Chand and Pandit Balkrishna Sharma it has been pointed that as a matter of fact in the redrafted Bill very drastic changes were made and they have given examples of the changes. I am not satisfied that they have exhausted all the substantial changes in the minutes and I would beg of you to consider it from that point. When I began my speech I invited your attention to the fact that in this measure, as it has emerged from the Select Committee after the redrafted Bill was considered, many changes have been made which are certainly destructive of the institutions which we have not in the Punjab. I will first of all call your attention to the institution of appointment of an heir. In regard to the appointment of an heir we know the views of the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar. He himself stated that he thought that the adoption of heirs is an artificial affair. I also think so. We remember the speech made by Mrs. Hansa Mehta at the time when the Bill was sent to the Select Committee. She also made certain remarks. Now, according to the present measure, no person could adopt an heir in any form except in the Debate form whereas according to the original Bill the Kritrim and Goda forms were also allowable. So far as adoption is concerned adoption of a son is a mere fiction. How can such a son become a real son? But the Hindu law provides for it and I have no quarrel with those who believe in it. But in regard to appointing heirs to property, just as the Romans did by way of Nominis Hereditio, if the people in the Punjab had got practices like that nobody has the right to touch them. According to our institutions, in the appointment of an heir, though it is in effect just like an adoption; there is no religious efficacy, there are no particular ceremonies. There is no question of age. The son is not engrafted in the family of the adoption but he continues in his own family. There are various rules and the Punjab High Court has given hundreds of rulings over this point. That institution is too strongly fixed in the public mind and you will be tampering with the custom of at least a crore of people if you are not allowing it in this Code. According to the Hindu Code no other form of adoption will be allowed, that is the provision in the present: it does not go far enough. I understand that so far as custom is concerned, custom has been ruled out except to the extent which has been recognised.