DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1133
in between these two impressions, I am trying to carry through this bill. The hon. Member need not refer to all those matters. It is his sweet will and pleasure to say what he wants to say or to refer to the further clauses or not to refer to any of them at all, or to make any comments for various reasons which he may consider fit and proper.
Pandit Malaviya : I entirely agree with the remarks that have fallen from your lips and I was not making a complaint. I was only mentioning the fact that for reasons other than those that you have stated I shall not allow myself to take all the time that I need and that I should have liked to take. That is all that I wished to submit. Incidentally, it will also probably enable several other Members of this House, who, I saw yesterday, were very keen to have an opportunity to say something, to have an opportunity to do so. I am not saying this by way of any complaint, but I was submitting to you as a matter of fact that I have to leave out practically all that I wished to say and must now come straight to one or two points.
I will leave the point I was making when we dispersed yesterday, regarding the scope of the Bill having been extended, so to say, overnight by the new Constitution having included agricultural lands in the Current List. I shall leave that also there.
I will only touch in passing on another very important aspect, namely, that the bill which is before us now is so largely changed that it is almost unrecognisable compared to what it was when it was first introduced. There is a rule that Select Committees at the end of their reports should state that they have amended the Bill only in such measure, as they think, has not changed it materially and that the amended Bill does not need re-circulation or republication. That proves the principle that if a Bill is substantially changed in a Select Committee it should be republished and re-circulated. I submit that in matters of legislation we should observe the sanctity of the rules, because rules are framed in moments of calm and dispassionate consideration ; not vis-a-vis any particular item or any particular point of view, but with regard to the basic fundamental needs of ensuring that legislation is passed only with due care, thought and circumspection. Such rules, therefore, have very great value and it must be an ill day for the growth of healthy parliamentary traditions and institutions in any country if we begin to make light of them to suit the conveniences of our opinions on particular issues and particular