954 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
give some reasons why the Constitution should not be amended and tampered so easily. Anyone who is familiar with what is called the interpretation of law by courts—and there are well-set rules as to how Statutes are to be interpreted—will recall that there is a famous rule of interpretation which is called stare decisis which means this, that when the courts have given an interpretation for a long number of years in a very uniform sense, and if after a long number of years some lawyer gets up and convinces the court that the existing interpretation is wrong and ought to be changed, the courts say that they shall not do it, although they are convinced that the interpretation is wrong. The reason why the courts adopt this rule stare decisis is very important. The court says :
“Whether the interpretation we have given is right or is wrong is now not a matter of moment, for the simple reason that a large number of people have acted upon our interpretation as being the correct law, have incurred obligations, have secured rights. Now to say that all these obligations and rights are founded upon a mistaken view of the law would be to unsettle the society altogether. Let, therefore, the wrong continue.”
That is the attitude that the courts have taken. The same reason prevails, in my judgement, why the Constitution should not be constantly amended. People know that the Constitution contains certain rules, certain obligations, and in accordance with them, they make their contracts, they make their plans for the future. It is not right, therefore, to come in every year and to disturb these values. That is the reason why I say the Constitution should not be so lightly and so frequently amended. I do not know whether the Government would listen to it, perhaps not.
Shri Tajamul Husain (Bihar) : Why should they ?
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Well, Sir, it is a habit. Once a cow gets the habit of running into the fields of another, you cannot convert her by morality. It is a habit.
Mr. Chairman: Go on, go on.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: In other countries wherever a clause of the Constitution has been interpreted by the judiciary in a way which the Government does not like, Government concurs in, it does not like to upset the decision