32 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
out the provisions of this Bill we must be bound by the limitations that have been imposed upon this legislature by the Government of India Act, 1935 as adapted.
I will now turn to the other criticism expression to which was given by my Honourable Friend Shri Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar. With regard to his amendment I do not want to say that I regret that the amendment is something which I could not accept. All that I want to say is that according to my reading of the situation that amendment is probably unnecessary, and I will explain to him why I take that point of view. The ground that he urged for the amendment was that the Privy Council in a certain case decided in 1940 ( as reported in the Punjab Co-operative Bank versus Commissioner of IncomeTax) stated, according to him, that they would not entertain any point relating to the consideration of the constitution of the High Court had not given a certificate ; therefore the Privy Council said that they would have to send that case back to the High Court for a certificate. His argument was that the decision of the Privy council in this case may also be accepted by the Federal court as binding upon itself; and therefore, wherever there was no certificate given and the matter came up before the Privy Council—and as a matter of fact it was found that a question relating to the constitution did arise—the Privy. Council would find itself unable to deal with that appeal. I think that was the sum and substance of his argument. Now what I would like to point out is that I think he has read a little more into the judgment of the Privy Council than it really says. I will read a few lines from the judgment. They have laid down three propositions which they say would arise in the consideration of section
- the second proposition is the only one which is relevant to our purpose.
“ Secondly, if in the absence of a certificate it appears to the Board on an appeal that there is ground for thinking that that is a matter for the consideration of the High Court and that they ought to have given or ought to have withheld the certificate, the Board ought to decline to hear an appeal until the High Court had an opportunity of doing one or the other.”