958 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
my point of view. But the Government does not want to do that. In running the Government buses they prefer to buy new buses. The Minister has yet to give an answer as to why he would not take the old buses from the people whose licences he has cancelled. No answer has been given for this thing.
Mr. Chairman : Dr. Ambedkar, you have taken nearly an hour.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Yes, Sir, that is quite true.
Mr. Chairman: Please wind up as early as possible.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Yes, Sir. What I was saying was this, that in such cases it would be wrong to deprive a man of his means of livelihood and not to compensate him for the loss of his stock-in-trade. I would like to hear some argument on this subject which would justify this kind of conduct. Therefore,, my submission is that clause (2A) is a most inequitous piece of legislation. It has no relation to justice, equity and good conduct. Unless my friend is going to give some satisfactory explanation I mean to oppose that clause.
Now I will proceed to clause 3 of the amending Bill. I would like to say at the outset that the provisions contained in clause 3 are in my judgement, most insignificant, trivial and jejune and I do not know what the Government is going to achieve by incorporating this clause in the Constitution. Now, with regard to sub-clauses (g), (h) and (i) of proposed clasue (1), in clause 3 of the amending Bill, I have not the least objection because I do not see that by taking action under these clauses, there is going to be any injury to anybody. The essence of acquisition is that it causes injury to the interests of anybody. I do not see that these sub-clauses will cause any injury to anybody and, therefore, I support the proposition that there need be no compensation in these cases.
But there is one thing that I would like to say with regard to these clauses and it is this that if any action is taken under these clauses (g), (h) and (i), it must only be on the ground that public purpose justifies it. It must not be merely an arbitary act on the part of the Government. It must not be a whim that Government wants to amalgamate one company