PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 129
on the population basis a State is getting representation ; and we are upgrading a great deal where a State is not getting any representation at all. It has really got to be done by equitable consideration and not by logic and not necessarily by population.
Then I come to Kashmir. As the House will see, there is a special provision with regard to Kashmir and that provision differs in one important respect and that is that the Kashmir representatives will not be elected by the people. Now, the reason for making an exception in regard to Kashmir is this, namely, that Kashmir is a part of India in a very attenuated manner, so to say. The Article relating to Kashmir says that only Article 1 applies, that is to say, Kashmir is part of the territories of India. The application of the other provisions of the Constitution, that Article says, will depend upon the President, who may in consultation with the Government of Kashmir apply the rest of the Articles with such modifications and alterations as he may determine. As the honourable House may probably know, there has been already issued an order in regard to Kashmir in which the President has modified the Article providing for the representation of States in Parliament by stating that he shall nominate the represntatives of Kashmir in consultation with the Government of Kashmir. I think it was issued on the 26th January. That being so, there is really no room for this Parliament to make any provision with regard to the representation of Kashmir in Parliament in a manner different from what has been provided in the Bill. I think that nothing more is necessary for the purpose of elucidating how the First Schedule has been brought into being.
I now come to the fixation of the total seats in the State Legislative Assemblies as has been shown in the Second Schedule. With regard to this matter also, we have had to conform to the provisions of Article 170. That Article lays down two rules. One rule is that there should be not more than one seat for every 75,000 of the population. The second rule is that the maximum number of seats of a State Legislative Assembly shall be 500 and the minimum shall be 60. In framing the Second Schedule, the following considerations