(1)
* FOREIGN EXCHANGE REGULATION (AMENDMENT) BILL
Mr. Speaker : Motion moved.
“That the Bill to amend the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, be taken into consideration.”
What has the Law Member to say about the position regarding the expression ‘ British India’?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Minister for Law): I thought I would speak when the amendment was being moved, in reply to it. If you so desire, I shall explain the position.
Mr. Speaker: Yes, because it would save time.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, we have got what is called an Existing Laws Adaptation Order in which certain terms are defined. In that order the term ‘British India’ is defined and is defined to mean ‘all the Provinces of British India’. It is therefore open to the House to include in this particular Bill either of the two phrases which under the Adaptation Order mean the same thing. We could either use ‘British India’ or we could use ‘all the provinces of India’ which would mean one and the same thing. The question of these two alternatives and as to which of them we should adopt really has to be determined by the phraseology which has been used in the main Bill to which this Bill is merely an amendment. In the original Bill dealing with foreign exchange regulation, the term used is ‘British India’ and my submission is that if this amendment is to be intelligible it must use common phraseology which is ‘British India’.
- Constituted Assembly (Legislative) Debates, hereinafter called C. A. (Leg.) D. Vol. I, 20th November 1947, p. 357.