38 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
that Committee gave to its proposals, the number of questionnaires that it issued, the statements that it received, the witnesses that it examined and the peregrinations it undertook from province to province in order to ascertain local public opinion. Again in 1942 this very Committee submitted two draft Bills, one on succession and the other on marriage. The Hindu Succession Bill was introduced in the Assembly in 1943. That was referred to a joint Committee of both Houses. That joint committee again invited public opinion and a volume of them were collected and circulated to the then legislature in existence. Having regard to all these, I am sure that the statement made by my honourable friend that the Government had not given sufficient publicity cannot be accepted as truth.
He also referred to the report, the Minority Report of Justice Mitter, where also he has analysed the pros and cons of the various points contained in this Bill. Sir, I do not like to say anything derogatory of a member of a Committee, who has done such useful work, but I cannot help saying that this member really ran away from his own opinion. If my honourable friend, Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad were to read the report of the majority he will find that all the propositions contained in that Bill which give rights to women were really based upon a publication of this member of the Committee in the year 1930. In that book he had propounded the view that the case law which had limited the rights of the women had no foundation. Ultimately for reasons best known to him he did no submit that there is no point in this argument.
My honourable friend also referred to the fact that this Bill is after all confined to property other than agricultural land. The conclusion he drew from that fact was that this codification was only a partial codification, because a large part of the property which is the subject matter of inheritance is felt untouched by the provisions of this Bill. Sir, there are two explanations for the non-inclusion of agricultural property*. My honourable friend, if he refers to the Schedules to the Government of India Act, where the subject matter of legislation for Centre and the Provinces have been set out will find that land is put in the “Provincial List”. As a result of the judicial interpretation given by the Federal Court it was held that the word “land” or item “land”,
- Misprinted as ‘ non-agricultural property, in the Debates at p. 3651.