624 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Shri T. T. Krishnamachari: But that disqualification would not operate in this case.
Dr. Ambedkar: I do not know. Our disqualification would arise if the period is 2 years or if the detention is an indefinite sort of thing. So I would not commit myself to the proposition suggested now. I feel that we are really breaking a very salutary principle that a man if he wants to exercise his legal rights of voting, he must be within the pale of the law and not outside it. Therefore, on that ground I am not prepared to accept the suggestion with regard to persons under preventive detention.
As I said I am prepared to consider the question as to whether a candidate, his polling agents and other agents who are working for him and who are not registered as the voters in that particular constituency in which they are present, should be permitted to vote in that very constituency notwithstanding the fact that they are not registered there. But that is a matter which cannot come under this clause.
Mr. Chairman: The present rule is then that they are allowed to vote wherever they happen to be ?
Dr. Ambedkar: If necessary, that will be provided for separately.
Shri T. T. Krishnamachari: Sir, I would like the House to be permitted to discuss this matter more fully, in regard to the persons under preventive detention. At the time the amendment was moved, we thought that as a matter of course, it would be accepted. Several Members hold that the persons detained under the Preventive Detention Act under the Constitution are detained for something for which they are not responsible and Government fight shy of taking these persons to a court and get them convicted. And so long as they are not convicted, they must be held to be innocent of all crimes.…….It is a matter of principle with many of us and in view of the importance of this question we want a separate vote taken so that we can voice our opinion on this matter.
Mr. Chairman: There are two questions—not only the question whether these persons should be allowed to vote.