DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 857
community should be permitted to pick and choose particular portions of the Code wich are acceptable to them ?
Mr. Chairman : The hon. Member must address the Chair and he should put the question through the Chair.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I am very glad that Mr. Kapoor should have put this question to me. Since I also put a question to Mr. Kapoor when he was speaking yesterday, this is tit for tat. I then asked Mr. Kapoor when he was speaking whether he wanted that every person should have liberty of choosing a particular clause and whether he shall be bound or not. His proposition was that out of the Hindu Code consisting of so many sections every individual be he a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Parsee or whoever he may be able to choose a particular section to bind him and not others.
Shri J. R. Kapoor : On a point of personal explanation, I never said that. What I said that of all portions in the Code one should be at liberty to pick and choose any particular portion. There are different parts relating to marriage, adoption and inheritance etc. It should be open to one to pick and choose the part relating to marriage and say : “I want to be governed by this chapter.” I never said that one particular section should be accepted by one and another section by another.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I am very sorry that my hon. Friend controverted the statement that I made. I put this question in those very words and he replied to that question and his reply was that he would rather like that even a particular section could be chosen. Unfortunately, he does not remember that.
Shri J. R. Kapoor : I will refer him to the speech which I delivered yesterday.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : After reading the section I found the very thing that I am submitting.
Shri J. R. Kapoor : I suppose it is not so.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I take it that what my friend says is the true version.
May I humbly ask my Friend whether he wants that a person can choose out of the Hindu Code and say that so far as marriage is concerned he shall be found by the Hindu Law and so far as succession is concerned, he shall be bound by some other law ? That would be an impossible proposition for a person to say that he would be bound only by one Chapter of the Hindu Code and not by others. The whole