10 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Committee, all of them pleaded that their legislative work was more important than the work of the committee. At the end of the sessions all of them naturally repaired to their homes in order to perform either their personal or their professional duties. The result was that the Committee was not able to devote all the time that it was expected to devote. Now obviously my Honourable friend Sir Hari Singh Gour will agree that if his purpose is to be carried out we must have an altogether different sort of Committee. It is no use having, a Committee of the sort that we had and which, for the reasons I have mentioned, did not fulfil the functions with which it was charged.
Now, Sir, there are two ways, in my judgment of doing the thing. First of all we might have a permanent Commission sitting for no other purpose except that of revising and codifying the statute. Secondly, if it is to be a permanent body it undoubtedly must be a body of experts who know their job. And I think every one will agree that if experts are to be called away from their professions we must make it worth their while to come and serve on the Committee. Obviously it is a matter of cost. That being so, it is not possible for me to say off-hand that without examining the question of cost it will be possible for Government to say here and now that we shall agree to appoint a Statute Law Revision Committee of any sort that might be suggested either by Sir Hari Singh Gour or by any other member of the legislature.
There is also another way of carrying the purpose into practice. That might be by the appointment of a small standing committee consisting of the Law Minister of the Government of India, a Judge of the Federal Court, the Advocate-General of India, one or two Judges of the High Courts in India and two or three eminent lawyers. The Committee might be asked to sit at stated periods of the year and a person from the Law Department of the Government of India may be deputed to act as a Secretary, to collect the information and to place it before the Committee for the Committee to take notice of what might be done.