552 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
law ? The Government of India in the year 1923 appointed a Civil Justice Committee and that Committee after going through the various statutes made a recommendation that the Transfer of Property Act, the Contract Act, and the Law of Evidence should be modified and their revision should be taken in hand by the Legislature at an early stage. Has the Legislature found time for it ? What is the result ? The result is that the law is being administered in accordance with the provisions, which according to the authority itself; has outlived the utility for which they brought it into existence. That will be the condition if the Hindu Code is brought on the Statute Book and is made a rigid code upon which the rights of the people will depend. The Hindu law will lose its vitality, its elasticity, its adaptability to the prevailing conditions and will be reduced to immobile rigidity. May I know whether the object of reducing conflicts and of fighting differences of opinion will be achieved by the codification of Hindu Law ? I dare to suggest it will not and our experience of the various pieces of legislation leads one to support my conclusion.
Take for instance, the Hindu Law Remarriage Act which was enacted in 1871. Now, Sir, it is a very simple piece of legislation but has there been an unanimity of opinion in respect of the construction of the various provisions of that Act ?
Shrimati G. Durgabai (Madras : General): Are you opposing the Widow Marriage Act also ?
Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava : I hope my friend will have the patience to hear me. We must learn tolerance and patience for opposite opinions. My point was that mere bringing in of an enactment does not lead to uniformity or to the resolution of a conflict of opinion. Even in the interpretation and the construction of the provisions of this Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1872, we find that there is a serious conflict of opinion between different High Courts about the construction of section 2. The question arises whether a woman who remarries according to customary law loses her rights in the property of her husband. This is the point, and we have the opinion of the Allahabad High Court and Oudh Chief Courts to the effect that merely because she remarries according to custom she does not lose her right in her previous husband’s property. The other High Court has taken the other view. Similarly, in this Act there has been a serious conflict of opinion upon the interpretation of the simple word “sister”. Some High Courts say that the word “sister” does not include a “half