920 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
position, as I say, remains exactly the same : the only question is whether the legislative control vested in the Centre by Article
369—which was vested only for five years and no more—should now be continued for an indefinite period. Speaking for myself, I feel that that is a patter for the Administration to judge, whether the circumstances m which they are living now are so altered that the period of five years which was given to parliament to legislate over these items should be abrogated. On that point, speaking again for myself, I am quite prepared to submit to the decision of the Administration because they know far better than a Member of parliament can hope to do. “Therefore, Sir, so far as the merits of the Bill are concerned, I give my support to it.
The Hon. Minister in charge while speaking on the Bill, made some reference to consultations with the States. I heard him say that he consulted the opposite departments in the various States and that the consultation, so far as I was able to judge from the observation that he made, was, if I may say so, somewhat perfunctory. I think that this is a very grave matter for the simple reason that this Bill is not going to become law merely by the vote of the two Houses. The Bill will have to go through a further ceremony before it becomes law. In this connection, I would like to draw the attention of the Hon. Minister in charge to Article 368, particularly to clause (c) of the Proviso which says : “Provided that if such amendment seeks to make any change in—* * * (c) any of the Lists in the Seventh Schedule,* * * the amendment shall also require to be ratified by the Legislatures of not less than one half of the States specified in Parts A and B of the first schedule by resolutions to that effect passed by those Legislatures before the Bill making provision for such amendment is presented to the President for assent “Therefore, this is one of those amendments ……..
Shri T. T. Krishnamachari : On a point of information. The first letter dated the 12th September 1953 was addressed to all the State Governments and the second letter dated the
20th August 1954 enclosing a copy of this letter was addressed