210 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
effect to that intention. On the examination of the circumstances, as I then said, it was found that in certain areas electoral rolls were not ready and in certain areas constituencies had not been delimited. If we had allowed the original provisions contained in the People’s Representation Act 1950 what would have been the position? The position would have been this. Under the Original Act the Election Commissioner is bound to publish preliminary electoral rolls—I am using the words “ preliminary electoral rolls ” constituencywise. That was the first step in the process of election. After that was done two or three processes had to be undergone. One was the inviting of claims and objections, the second was to have the claims and representations dealt with by some authority judicial or otherwise and to have them disposed of: and thirdly, to enter all the corrections consequent upon the decision of the revising authority into the electoral rolls and then to publish them finally.
Speaking for the moment and taking into consideration the time that would have been necessary to go through these processes, the position would have been this. After the constituencies were delimited, certainly three weeks or one month ought to be given to the electors to make their claims and objections. You could not fairly give less than that time. Thereafter, at least two months would be necessary for the revising authority, I am giving a very conservative estimate, two months would be necessary for the revising authority to dispose of claims and objections. That means three months. Add one more month for revising the electoral rolls in the light of the decision of the revising authority. That means four months. Assuming that the preliminary electoral rolls were prepared by the end of this month, which I don’t think is a very sanguine hope—but supposing that was so—it is quite obvious that following the principles embodied in the original People’s Representation Act, the final electoral rolls could not have been published even by the end of April or May. That meant that if we had followed literally the provisions contained in the original Act, the elections could not have taken place in the month of April and May. As