DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 929
I shall, first of all, try to dispose of some of the amendments that have been placed before the House and the objections that have been raised in regard to them by the sponsor of this Bill. It is said in one of the amendments that because this bill has far reaching consequences it must be only an enabling measure, it is said that option should be given to any individual to declare that he will be governed by the provisions of this Bill from the date of registration or declaration to this effect. The Hon. the Law Minister said that down from the earliest times when legislation was embarked upon in this country by the Britishers, there has been no precedent whatever for a measure being passed and option being given to any individual or class to accept or reject that measure by declaration. I am afraid his memory is too short. Now, let us take the Cutchi Memons Act of 1920. Indians who got converted to Islam were very often governed by the Hindu law, the law in which they were born. So the Cutchi memons had the joint family law and they also made adoptions among themselves. But later on it was urged by some reformers that the Shariat, i.e. the law of Islam, should apply to all persons embracing Islam. Islam has its own code of laws regulating inheritance, marriage, succession, divorce etc. The Hindu faith has attached to it its own law made by the smrithikaras relating to the same items which are also regulated by the Islamic law. For those persons who got converted to Islam, an enabling provision was made in this Act whereby any Cutchi Memon who wanted to adopt the Hindu law could by declaration before a prescribed authority do so; he could either ask to be governed by the Hindu law or by the customary law which prevailed before his conversion.
Shri Raj Bahadur : That was a very special case.
Shri M. A. Ayyangar : I would refer to a general case also. My friend should be a little patient. Under the Cutchi Memons Act, as amended in 1923, there are the following provisions :—
“Any person who satisfies the prescribed authority—
(a) that he is a Cutchi Memon and is the person whom he represents himself to be;
(b) that he is competent to contract within the meaning of section
11 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872; and
(c) that he is resident in British India
may be declaration in the prescribed form and filed before the prescribed authority declare that he desires to obtain the benefit of this Act, and