PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 513
ought not be regarded as eligible for sitting on an Election Tribunal and they have added retired District Judges and retired and sitting High Court Judges as persons eligible for being appointed to an Election Tribunal. With regard to the two other matters relating to the Election Tribunal namely, the constitution of the Tribunal and the question of appeal, the Select Committee has made no change, so that the Tribunal as originally provided would continue to be a Tribunal of two members, one Chairman and one Member. Similarly the provisions with regard to appeal will also continue. As the House knows, we provide no regular appeal at all. What is proposed is that if the two members differ, there will be an automatic reference to the High Court.
Then I refer to the fourth change which the Select Committee has made and which from what has happened recently, I think, is a very salutary and a very important change. The House will remember, that in the original draft Bill the power to fill casual vacancies was left to the State Governments to decide. It was a matter left entirely within their power and within their discretion. The Select Committee felt that the State Governments might not be very diligent in the matter of exercising these powers and casual vacancies might remain unfilled for a long time, depriving constituencies of their opportunity to have their representatives sitting in Parliament or in the State Legislature. The Committee has therefore decided that this power, instead of being left with the State Governments, should be vested in the Election Commission which has nothing to do with Parliament or with the State Legislature. It is he now who will fix the date of election ; it is he now who will issue writs to the constituencies for holding the election and for sending their representatives. This I think is a very salutary change. These are the four important changes which the Select Committee has made in the Bill.
I will now proceed to deal with the changes proposed in the Minutes of Dissent. Analysing the Minutes of Dissent, I find that the Members who have subscribed to their Minutes of Dissent propose 10 different changes to be made in the Bill, as reported by the Select Committee. The first change is an