512 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Unfortunately the Committee did not agree with that view, although, as Members will see from the Report of the Select Committee, they expressed a great deal of sympathy with the provisions contained in the original clause 35. The Committee was greatly influenced by the fact that before the nomination proceedings could be deemed to have been concluded and finally settled it would be necessary for somebody to investigate whether the questions as to qualifications and disqualifications of a candidate were properly decided. The Committee felt that if the issue of qualifications and disqualifications of candidates were to be decided before the actual election starts the interval between nomination and election might be very long and the election might not take place as expeditiously as we would all wish it to take place. That was the governing factor which led the Committee to reject the provisions contained in the original clause 35. Notwithstanding that, as hon. Members who have read the Report of the Select Committee would notice, the Committee has said that they like the provision, and, if during the passage of the Bill in the House it was possible to evolve some formula which would avoid that delay that Members feared would take place between the conclusion of the nomination proceedings and the start of the election, they would welcome such a provision. I myself have not been able to think of anything which I could at this stage put before the House. I am told that such a provision does exist in the Madras law which deals with the election of the District Local Boards. It was after a long time that I was able to get a copy of that and I have not had time to apply my mind to it. I therefore—speaking from my point of view—propose to keep this question rather open.
Then I come to the third change which the Select Committee has made and that relates to the Election Tribunal. First of all I may refer to the changes made in the personnel of the Tribunal. As the House will remember, the original provisions in the Bill said that District Judges, advocates of ten years’ standing and subordinate judges might be regarded as eligible to act as Members of an Election Tribunal. The Select Committee has cut out subordinate judges. They think they