PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 923
America will find that there are two principles which underlie any action relating to the amendment of the Constitution. The first is this that there must be notice to the people. The people must know that the Government is going to undertake the amendment of the Constitution. The second principles is that there must be consent of the voters either directly as in America or indirectly by the States by ratifying resolution.
Now, Sir, is our Government observing these fundamental rules ? It is quite true that our Constitution is a very fluid one. It is not as rigid, not half as rigid as
3-00 P. M. the American Constitution or the Australian Constitution, and those who were in charge of framing the Constitution were fully conscious of the fact that the situation must be left fluid because it may be that circumstances would arise which would require amendment of the Constitution, and you cannot allow the Constitution to hold up the solution of social problems which are emergent. It was because of that that it was proposed that the provisions contained in Article
368 should suffice. We don’t require except in certain cases reference back to the States or reference back to the voters, but I have not the least doubt in my mind that no one who had anything to do with the drafting of the Constitution ever thought that the government would rush in on the spur of the moment to amend the Constitution without giving notice to the voters. Notice to the voters, if I may submit, is a general principle of political life and party life. Even in England no party would undertake any piece of legislation which did not form part of its political programme for the election. Every party must have a mandate to do a certain thing. Without a mandate a party cannot do anything. You cannot take the voters by surprise and you cannot assume absolute authority to amend even the Constitution simply because you are elected. This is exactly what our Government has been doing. Simply because they have obtained a majority they assume that they have not only the power to make any law whatsoever relating to any of the entries which give them the power to make laws but they have also got the power, merely by being elected, even without notifying their intention to the people as such, to even amend the Constitution. Is the Constitution