928 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
remained another law or a custom which went along with the Punjab Land Alienation Act, and which referred to what is called the shamilat land, that is to say, the land held in common by the villagers. Under the customary Punjab law, the shamilat land could be shared only by those communities which were called zamindars, hereditary land-owning communities. The others were non-zamindars. They were called kaminas, that is to say, they belonged to a low class, and they were not entitled to share in the land. Consequently, they could not build their houses in a pucca form on the land on which they stayed. They are always afraid lest the zamindars of Punjab may, at any time, turn them out. And the people did not venture to build permanently. I left a note in the Law Ministry, when I left, that this matter should be taken up and dealt with by the Government under the provisions of article
372, sub-clause (2). I have no idea what the Law Ministry has done or what the Home Ministry has done. I believe, no action has been taken on that account so far. I had, for my own guidance; made a list of certain laws, which I felt it was absolutely essential to modify in order to bring them in conformity with the Constitution. The first that I would like to mention is Madras Regulation XI of 1816. This is a criminal law enacted by the East India Company. In that, there is a provision, I think, section 10, which says that if the offender belongs to the lower classes, then the punishment to be inflicted on him is to put him in the stocks. This punishment is not to be inflicted if the offender belongs to the higher classes. There can be no question, Sir, that this Regulation is a discriminatory Regulation, and should be repealed. Then the next item that I would refer to is the Bombay Municipal Servants Act V of 1890. Under that Act, it is provided—I think it is section 3—that if a municipal servant, whose duties fall within the Schedule attached to the Act, absents himself from work without permission, or resigns his office without at least giving three months’ notice in writing, he shall be sentenced to imprisonment. It is a well-established principle now that a contract of employment is only a civil contract for which, if there is to be any punishment that punishment must be only damages and not imprisonment.