DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 491
son. If a man died leaving a brother’s son and a sister’s son, under the original Bill, the brother’s son would have inherited, but under the Departmental Bill the brother’s son and the sister’s son inherit together. I submit these are very substantial changes.
Then I come to Class IV of the original Bill. In Class IV of the original Bill, a man dying leaving a father’s mother and a father’s father have been treated differently in the original Bill and the Departmental Bill. Between the father’s mother and a father’s father being the heirs under the original Bill, the father’s mother would have been preferred; the father’s father would have been postponed. But under the Departmental Bill both have been put together and they inherit together. I ask whether this is not a substantial change.
Then, Sir, we have a certain class of heirs in Class IV, items (1A), (1B),
(1C) and (1D). These were introduced by an amendment of the original report by the Rau Committee. In the original Bill, if there was a father’s widow and a brother’s widow, the father’s widow would have been preferred to the brother’s widow. In the Departmental Bill the father’s widow and the brother’s widow inherit together. I submit this is a very substantial change— whether good or bad, it is not the point. Then coming to two other heirs in the supplementary list introduced by way of amendment of the Rau Committee brother’s son’s widow and brother’s son’s son’s widow are entirely omitted in the Departmental Bill. In the original Bill they would have inherited one after the other. In the Departmental Bill they are omitted. There is nothing corresponding to this in the Departmental Bill.
Then coming to item 2, Class IV, the father’s father is very low in the original Bill but he has been brought up very much higher in the list prepared by the Departmental Committee.
Then Sir, we come to the father’s brother and also to father’s sister. Father’s brother is No. 3 in the list. Father’s sister is sixth in the list. So in the original Bill, if there was the father’s father and the others, the father’s father would be preferred. Then comes the father’s brother, father’s brother’s son, father’s brother’s son’s son and then the father’s sister. In the Departmental Bill the father’s father and the father’s sister have been brought together, the latter being brought higher up.
Then there is a large list of heirs which has been entirely omitted. Nos.
(4), (5), (7), (8) and (9) are heirs in the original Bill. They are nowhere in the Departmental Bill. They are entirely eliminated.