960 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Shri Naziruddin Ahmad : It will lead to inconvenience ; that will no doubt come formally, in due course : we should not be made to wait till that time.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : I have given my ruling. The hon. Member does not say that this clause 2 will not apply to any State whatsoever; if it applies even to a small village in a single State in the whole of India we shall proceed with clause 2. When we come to clause 1 we shall eliminate all the others where it ought not to apply under the Constitution.
Shri Naziruddin Ahmad : The difficulty is this. If the Members belonging to the States know before hand that the Bill will not apply to them, they will not trouble themselves about the matter and discussion will be shortened. But on the other hand, if they are in the dark as to whether it will apply to them or not, they will have to partake in the debate. So, in order to clarify the situation we ought to know where we are and where they are.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : The hon. Member knows too well that we come back, after exhausting all the other clauses, to clause 1. Any hon. Member who is a representative of the States may proceed on the footing that it will apply—he may do so in the first instance. Then he may make an effort along with Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad to get it out. There is time enough.
Shri Syamnandan Sahaya (Bihar) : Before we proceed with the Bill, I think the House is entitled to know the procedure which has been adopted from the papers we learn that only two parts of the Bill, concerning marriage and divorce, will be taken. It will be desirable for the Hon. Minister to explain the position so that the House may know in what direction we are proceeding and how this matter is ultimately going to be decided. That is one point to which I want to draw your attention, Sir, and the attention of the House. The other point to which I want to draw your attention and the attention of the Hon. Minister and of the House is this. Now the appearance of the Bill seems to be such that it is difficult to recognise it. As a matter of fact, the Hon. Law Minister himself, who is the Mover of the Bill, has sent in a very large number of amendments some of which reached us even yesterday. You will appreciate the importance of a Bill like the Hindu Code. You have also seen the seriousness that is attached to this Code by the Members of this House. We are really in a difficult position to find out suddenly what the amendments are, what the implications of those amendments