DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1307
Dr. Ambedkar : I know that he is much more informed on certain subjects than I am.
Shri Syamnandan Sahaya : Dr. Ambedkar, I have never accepted that you are omniscient and that you have all the knowledge. It may be that in certain matters I may have better information………….
Dr. Ambedkar: I agree that you are. My point is that in view of the fact …………..
Shri Bhatt: I would like to remind the Hon. Dr. as to wherefrom we got the word parishad and how the word Rajya-parishad has come into being.
Dr. Ambedkar: That parishad is another thing.
Shri Bhatt: That Parishad is another thing.
Shri Bhatt: That was nothing but a form of Parishad.
Dr. Ambedkar : Parishad is only a Council; it is not a Parliament. it has never been. What other way was left open to the people to regulate their life except to make their own custom, because there’ was no Parliament, there was no Legislature and nothing of the kind ? But when we have got a Parliament, the function of which is to make law, the question that we have to consider and very seriously consider is whether we are going to allow the people as such who are outside the Parliament to have a parallel authority to make their customary laws and the Parliament should have no right to interfere in them. I think, that is a very serious question that we have to consider. It is quite one thing to say that where custom have grown and they are valid customs, in the way in which a valid custom has been defined in clause 2 of this Bill, they should be retained. That is a very different question. But to say that nowhere custom should be altered, amended, changed is really to abrogate the authority of Parliament and I am very doubtful that any such proposition would be accepted by Parliament and that is a matter about which I have considerable doubt and I also go further and say whether Parliament could continue to be that necessary and useful instrument for changing the ways of life for which it has been designed, if the proposition which had been supported by Messrs. Pande and T. N. Singh was accepted, that Parliament should have no jurisdisction with regard to customary laws……..
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Will the Hon. Law Minister take a long time ?
Dr. Ambedkar: I am just closing.