PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 523
Christians and so on, shall be abolished and that they shall be retained only for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and wherever a seat is reserved in a constituency for these two classes the system of voting shall be distributive voting. That resolution was accepted by the Constituent Assembly. No doubt there was a certain amount of debate on that question but ultimately the decision of the Assembly was in favour of distributive voting. It seems to me that our Parliament must pay some special regard to the decisions of the Constituent Assembly, because, after all, it is from the Constituent Assembly that we have derived our power and authority. Certain decisions taken by the Constituent Assembly we have got in our Constitution, certain others which we could not embody in our Constitution remain outstanding. It does not mean that because we have not embodied those decisions in the Constitution we are not to pay any regard to them. Therefore it seems to me that whatever may be the view-point on the subject—I do not deny that there is some validity in the contention of the other side—I think personally that the matter must be regarded as concluded. It would of course be open to the House to take any step they like, if as a result of experience in the next or subsequent elections they find that the system is not a good one and ought to be substituted. But for the moment the decision of the Constituent Assembly must stand.
The fifth point raised is the declaration of the results. That is also raised by my Friend Mr. Sarangdhar Das. If I understand him correctly—he will correct me if I am wrong, for it is not quite clear to me—what he wants is that the results of the election should not be announced piecemeal, constituency by constituency, or province by province, but that all results should be announced on the same day. I take it that he has no objection to counting the votes piecemeal, constituency by constituency, and making the record of it complete. There is a difference between counting and announcing………..
Shri Gautam (Uttar Pradesh) : Counting is done in the presence of the candidate.
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes, of course. Those provisions are there. The only question is as you finish your counting for the