DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 499
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I must frankly express my gratefulness to the Law Minister for listening to me so patiently. I submit that I have other points indicating changes which I shall show briefly.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : Leave along the changes. There are changes I may put it this way. I am not letting down a secret and there is no secret from the House as I conceive. When a matter comes before the House after having been referred to Select Committee, the Select Committee might commit a mistake and it is open to the Members to say that it is wrong and the wrong has to be corrected. Except one or two matters as for example what each member said in the Select Committee which ought not to be placed before the House as things are in a fluid condition and it would result in a disturbance and antipathy. I may say this. So far as the Select Committee is concerned any draft may be considered. The draft was of the Ministry here. At the outset it is said in Para. 2 of the Select Committee’s report here:
“The draft Hindu Code, as introduced in the Legislature, did not receive any Departmental scrutiny prior to its introduction, and the Ministry of Law ( which certainly includes the Minister of Law at its head ), which had an opportunity to examine the Bill during the period between the end of the last session of the legislature and the beginning of the present session, have now produced a revised draft……..”
The draft was placed before the Select Committee and the ruling of the Speaker is that the original Bill that was sent to the Select Committee, along with the draft—which we will assume is the complete list of all the amendments which the Law Minister wanted to introduce—was all considered by the Select Committee. It is open to the honourable member to say that the Bill and the clauses in it are wrong, that they upset society and that sufficient attention was not paid to the changes that were effected in the Select Committee to the original Bill. I think that would help the House to come to a conclusion regarding either the whole Bill or individual clauses in it on matters of substance. We have already spent a lot of time over this matter. It is necessary that on this matter there may be clarification and I do not think anyone here wants to dogmatise upon a particular matter.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I might say openly that I have not an empty mind but I have an open mind.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : That is what we expect.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I am very grateful to him. Sir I come to another branch of the Bill. I would like to draw the attention of