506 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Shri Sonavane : No, no.
Shri J. R. Kapoor: I am sure he will regret sooner rather than later having adopted this attitude and this contention that the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes should be considered as defined in article 366 for the purposes of the Constitution. If I only draw his attention to article
335 and some other cognate articles which also use the words ‘scheduled castes’ then, I am sure he will change his opinion because if he would still stick to that view, then the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes will be deprived of all the various privileges that are contemplated to be given under article 335 and other articles to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes residing in Part C States. Article 335 runs thus :
“ The claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affaris of the Union or of a State. ”
If scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as mentioned in article 335 are to refer only to those scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as are defined in article 366, meaning thereby the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes belonging to Part A and Part B States, then, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes residing in Part C States do not get the advantage of article 335 of the Constitution. By this one error—I do not know whether it is error of judgment or what it is —by this one error to day-he has deprived the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes of Part C States of all the benefits they were having or could have under article 335. And...
Mr. Chairman: Order, order. May I ask the hon. Member whether all the members of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes are bound by the interpretation given by the Law Minister ? there is no such thing as an estoppel on interpretation. We have only just enacted this Bill without coming to any legal conclusions whether this interpretation or that interpretation is the correct one. That is for the courts to decide. The courts have to interpret the meaning.