PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 31
Mr. Speaker : Motion moved :
“That the Bill to provide for the enlargement of the appellate jurisdiction of the Federal Court in civil cases be taken into consideration.”
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I am grateful to the House for having expressed its general satisfaction with this Bill. I will, therefore, deal only with certain points of criticism which have been raised by certain Honourable Members who have taken part in this debate. The first point of criticism relates to what I might call a timidity for my not going the whole hog and abolishing appeals to the Privy Council and conferring the fullest jurisdiction on the Federal Court. I am told that I am making a sort of artificial distinction between this Legislature and the Constituent Assembly and that I am for no reason limiting the powers of this House. I am sure that that is criticism which, to put it mildly, is certainly far from valid. I cannot accept the proposition that this legislature as distinguished from the Constituent Assembly is a completely sovereign body, as complete as the Constituent Assembly itself. It is true that the same members who sit in this House sit in the Constituent Assembly, so that in regard to the personnel there is no distinction. But I have not the slightest doubt in my mind that so far as functions are concerned the two Assemblies are quite different. The function of the Constituent Assembly is to make the constitution and in making that constitution it is bound by nothing except by its own vote. So far as this Assembly is concerned, it is bound by the Government of India Act, 1935 ; that is the constitution which is binding upon this legislature. Except the British Parliament which has both sorts of powers, namely, ordinary legislative powers as well as constituent powers, I do not know of any Assembly anywhere which has got a written constitution which possesses powers to override a constitution which has created that particular legislature. I therefore submit that I am on perfectly strong and stable footing when I say that in carrying
C. A. (Leg.) D., Vol. III, 11th December 1947, pp. 1719-22.