PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 743
Dr. Ambedkar: Therefore, the first point that I want to submit to the House is that so far as Entries 14 and 15 in List-I are concerned, there is the greatest amplitude of power conferred upon Parliament for the purpose of ceding territory.
In view of the fact that certain Members of Parliament seem to be rather unconvinced or not prepared to accept the submission that I am making. I would like to elaborate the point a little further. Hon. Members will remember that the Constitution of the United States is, in a sense a very difficult Constitution, for the simple reason that the States in the United States are much more independent and sovereign than the States which are constituent elements of the Indian Union, in the sense that the powers of the Congress are derived from such powers as have been delegated to it by the States composing the United States. It is a Government of what are called not merely delegated powers, but enumerated powers. There is no such thing as residuary power in the Central Government of the United States such as we have in our Constitution. Taking advantage of this position, namely, that the States in the United States are masters of their territory and the United States Central Government has no authority so far as the territory of the States is concerned, except with regard to certain limited matters handed over to the Central Government, there was a stage in the interpretation of this particular document under which it was contended that although the treaty-making power of the United States Government may include within it the power to cede territory, it could not include the power to cede territory which belonged to the State. In other words, the treaty-making power of the United States was subject to what was called the doctrine of the inherent rights of the States. It may transfer such other territory which it may have, which it may have conquered which are regarded in the United States as territories of the United States, but not as constituent parts of the United States. That doctrine, as I said, was urged for a long number of years in the United States. But ultimately the position taken by the Supreme Court of the United States was that