764 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
by us without knowing what it is. I therefore humbly request Dr. Ambedkar to explain these things in the Select Committee.
Dr. Ambedkar: I could explain these things in the House itself.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: He wants to bring in a new institution which is foreign to this land, which we had not got for all these years.
Shri Sidhva: It is not a new thing; it is existing in the port towns.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: That is for negotiable instruments. Dr. Ambedkar says so and I accept his versions as better than yours.
Shri Sidhva: Notary Public exists today.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: I have myself submitted that in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta and in some other places they do exist.
Dr. Ambedkar : Wherever there is the Negotiable Instruments Act in force, the Notary Public is there. The Negotiable Instruments Act applies throughout the whole of India, except, I suppose in some Part B States. In the Part A and Part C States, the Negotiable Instruments Act is in force.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: As regards the Negotiable Instruments Act, I have no quarrel. I know it applies to the whole of India. But, we do not know how this measure will affect the public. There was the system of honorary magistrates or some other persons who used to do some work all over the land. Here you want to do something covering the whole of the country, something which is quite new. So far as patronage is concerned, the appointing authority will be the State Governments and the Central Government, and so it is there. And then, some qualifications have been prescribed. But we do not know how these offices will work. They will execute documents. But will they keep copies of the documents ? Unless and until you make provisions for keeping copies, the fears which I have given expression to now will all arise. It is not as if I want to raise any bogey. The fear is quite real. And I am sure lawyers all over the land will not like this measure.