PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 23
* EXTRA PROVINCIAL JURISDICTION BILL —contd.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Minister for Law): If this clause 6 had been described by a Member of the Legislature who is not a lawyer as an unusual thing, I would not have any complaint: But I think for a lawyer to get up and say that this clause is not only unusual and strange, but cuts at the very foundation in the judiciary, I cannot help expressing my surprise. Sir, as every lawyer knows, the law makes a distinction so far as right are concerned between two sets—political rights and rights which are justiciable. Justiciable rights must always be determined by a judicial decree founded upon evidence produced by the parties before the court. But the political right, and I shall presently explain what is meant by political right, is never submitted to a court in the ordinary sense of the word. Now rights, whether they are contractual or otherwise, between two states are never regarded as justiciable rights. They are always regarded as political rights : and that is the one reason why this clause has been introduced into this Bill. The extraterritorial jurisdiction which is being conferred by the Indian States upon the Indian Dominion is a matter between, two states, and not between two individuals; and being a matter between two states, obviously all the matters connected with that jurisdiction are political rights, and as such they cannot be left to the judiciary to determine. This clause, as I said, is in no sense an unusual one, for if my honourable Friend refers to the British Act, on which this one is modelled, and refers to clause 4, he will find, the language of clause 6, is absolutely the same as the language of clause
- Now, my honourable Friend also said that he was aware of certain provisions in the Evidence Act where a certificate given by a Secretary of a Department of the Government of India was said to be conclusive evidence of his authenticity, but it was never accepted as deciding the status of any particular individual. I am sure that he must have forgotten Section 86 of the Civil Procedure Code. If he refers to the Civil Procedure Code, Section 86, he will find therein a provision
- C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. II, 9th December 1947, pp. 1580-82.