PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 133
point is important because it is generally agreed that an electoral roll should not be older than, say, for instance, six months, or three months from the date on which election takes place. Under the old English law there was a provision that electoral rolls should be prepared every six months. But they themselves found that this provision was so costly that they have now extended this period to twelve months. It is felt by the Government of India that in a vast electorate which we are likely to have under adult suffrage system, the cost of two revisions in one year would be enormous and consequently we have adopted the modest procedure of having only annual revisions of the electoral rolls. As I stated, these rules which apply to the electoral roll in Parliamentary constituencies are also made applicable to the preparation of electoral rolls, to the State Legislative Assemblies and to the State Councils and, therefore, I need not refer to them here at all.
Then I come to the last part of the Bill which deals with the composition of the Upper Chambers in the provinces, hon. Members will remember that there was a considerable division of opinion as to whether there should be second chambers in the provinces or not. The Constituent Assembly left this matter to the choice of the representatives of the various provincial assemblies in the Constituent Assembly to decide for themselves as to whether they should have or should not have second chambers. Some Members decided that there should be upper chambers for their provinces and others decided to the contrary. Consequently, the Constitution makes provision for the upper chamber for those provinces or those States where their representatives agreed to have such upper chambers. Now the Constitution also lays down how the upper chamber is to be constituted—that will be found in article 171. There again, much of the composition of the upper chambers has really been laid down by the Constitution itself. It says that the maximum of total membership shall not exceed one-fourth of the total of the Lower House and the minimum shall not be less than forty.
That is one priniciple that is laid down in article 171. The other principle that is laid down is that about the distribution