PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 801
stands amended by the amendments adopted by the House, which stood in the names of Babu Gopinath Singh and Dr. C. D. Pande.
W EST B ENGAL O RDER
Dr. Ambedkar: I accept amendment No. 2 in List No.
2, standing in the names of Messrs. Samanta and Abdus Sattar, to the Delimitation of Council Constituencies (West Bengal) Order, 1951.
Shri Chattopadhyay (West Bangal) : In view of the agreement reached I beg leave of the House to withdraw my amendment. But before you put the motion to the House I have a doubt to be clarified which relates to the case of nominated members of local authorities. It has never been the desire of this Parliament or the Constituent Assembly that nominated members should have any right to vote in the matter of elections to Councils. We have provided in the Constitution that nominated members of the Upper Houses in the Centre as well as States should have no right to vote for the election of the President in this Constituency under discussion there are as many as two municipalities with a total strength of 24 members, who are all nominated and if they get the right of vote in the matter of election to the Council I think the Council in the State of Bengal will become something like a farce because the members of the Council elected by nominated members will stand on a par with the representatives sent by elected members. It was never the desire of Parliament nor the Constituent Assembly that nominated members of local bodies should have any right to vote in the matter of election of the President or in the matter of election to the Councils. It is due to oversight that a mistake of so grave character has crept in and I would like to know whether anything could be done to remedy the mistake.
Dr. Ambedkar: I see the significance of the point raised by my hon. friend but the difficulty is a constitutional difficulty. The Constitution does not make any distinction between nominated members and elected members. Although