The working of the day started with adoption of the rules and standing orders of the Central Legislative Assembly. Then Acharya J B Kripalani was asked to move resolution for establishment of Committee on Rules of Procedure. The copy of resolution served to the members was having words “Sections and Committees” They were written in the meaning that the Sections and Committees were part of this Assembly. These words were considered superfluous by J B Kripalani.
According to the proposed resolution the Committee should consist of Chairman and 15 other members. This committee should frame rules for Rules of Procedure o the Assembly, powers of Chairman, orgnaisation of the work of Assembly, appointment and powers of Office-bearers other than the Chairman, Procedure for the declaration of Committee, etc. Chairman of the Assembly should be Chairman of the Rules Committee. The Committee members should be elected as per the procedure prescribed in the Schedule.
Further Chairman was also empowered to do certain functions such as to fix allowance of the members of the Assembly, salaries of the servants of Government of India or any Provincial Government appointed for service of the Assembly in consultation with the concerned Government, to fix salaries and allowances of all other persons recruited for the business of the Assembly.
As per Schedule committee members should be elected according to the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote and the elections should be conducted as per the rules of the Central Legislative Assembly in force for this purpose, on the date and time fixed by the Chairman. Any member who want to propose a member or members should give duly signed notice of it in written to Secretary on the day fixed by the Chairman. Proposed members should be willing to serve if elected and such willingness should be satisfied by the proposing member. Then lastly a withdrawal clause was added on time.
In case number of candidates so nominated was less, Chairman would appoint a further period within which the proposed notices can be submitted for vacancies. Such notices should be given until the vacancies were not filled. If total number of nominated candidates was equal to the vacancies, then Chairman should declare all the candidates to be duly elected. In case of more candidates, election should be conducted in the manner prescribed in Rule 1 of the resolution. Only members who had signed in the Register were entitled to be nominated and to vote. As per these rules no seconder was required for nomination of the Rules Committee members.
H V Kamath again raised an issue of formation of Election Tribunal to challenge the elections of such members. There was no such provision to challenge the election of a member at any level of working of the Constituent Assembly. Dr. Sinha assured to frame the required rules for this purpose.
As the copies were having words “Sections and Committees”, Dr. Suresh Chandra Banerjee of Bengal raised an issue related to the meaning of the Section, as there were difficulties with particular Sections. Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee of Bengal supported this issue raised by Dr. Suresh Chandra Banerjee. According to him if Rules Committee was empowered to make rules for Committees and Sections, then such Committees and Sections shall be specifically mentioned.
As per Dr. Mookherjee, it was necessary to mention specifically to which sections the Rules Committee would frame the rules. But as per J B Kripalani, the Sections and Committees were deemed to be part of the Constituent Assembly and hence the Rules Committee should be empowered to frame rule for the same without any specific mention. J B Kripalani further suggested that if there were additional rules required by the Sections, then such rules should not inconsistent with the rules of the whole Assembly.
In response to this Sardar Harman Singh of Punjab, Sikh minority, raised two issues. Firstly the wording of Rule 1(a) as “Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, its Sections and Committees”. As per suggestions of the Cabinet Mission, in the first session of the Constituent Assembly, Advisory Committee for certain purposes should be set up and that committee must had full representation of the minorities. Harman Singh was fearing of no representation of minority in the Rules Committee established by the procedure of election, hence such rules committee would not justify with the rules of the Advisory Committee having minority representation. Hence he proposed to add a paragraph in the schedule of the resolution providing that out of 15 members of the rules Committees, 10 should be elected and remaining five should be nominated by the Chairman of the Assembly so as to give adequate representation to important minorities. Thus the question of minorities, without any concrete definition on the basis of their percentage out of overall population is prevailing in India since the British era and it was highly fueled by the British rulers to divide the population of the country on the religious basis.
K M Munshi of Bombay, supported the addition of the words “Committees and Sections”. According to him, the absence of these words would be constructed as that the any Sections and Committees of the Assembly could function independently or frame its own rules and Assembly was not self-determining and self-governing body. Thus Rules committee would not have any power to regulate rules and functioning of any other committee or section of the Assembly. Srijut Basanta Kumar Das of Assam supported the suggestions of amendments proposed by K M Munshi regarding the specific mention of the Committees and Sections. Also he raised the concern about the minority’s representation.
Dr. Sinha asked Jawaharlal Nehru to express his views on this matter. Jawaharlal Nehru explained that the Advisory Committee or any other Committee had to report the Constituent Assembly. As there was lack of time and when the House was agreed in majority upon the main issue, he suggested J B Kripalani to accept the amendment proposed. J B Kripalani accepted the proposed amendment.
One representative of United Provinces, R V Dhulekar started to put his opinion in Hindustani. Dr. Sinha insisted him to speak in English, if he knows English, as members from southern states did not know Hindustani. In reply he said in Hindustani, “People who do not know Hindustani have no right to stay in India. People who are present in this House to fashion out a constitution for India and do not know Hindustani are noteworthy to be members of this Assembly. They had better leave.” Then he insisted that the Rules / Procedure Committee should frame rules in Hindustani which may be translated into English. He was member of Congress Party. R V Dhulekar proposed an amendment to the resolution of J B Kripalani, to frame the rules in Hindustani, then be translated into English. Discussion on the rule should be done in Hindustani and not in English. He insisted to talk in Hindustani – the very own language of India and not in English, as we were getting independence from the foreign rule. He also insisted to consider the History of our own Country of millions of past years, while drafting the Constitution. Dr. Sinha abstained him to address on the question of bi-ligualism and to put any amendment in that sense, in very insulting manner.
Dr. M R Jayakar of Bombay put his opinion again on the words “Sections and Committees”. According to him Sections include Sections B and C and certain group of men who were not present in the Assembly on that day representing the Sections B and C. He was mentioning about the Muslim League members and certain Princely State members. He interpreted that, if these words were added, then the members of Sections B and C would not arrive in future due to such specific mention, as they would think that they were not having any power to frame rules etc. Dr. Jayakar was initially a member of Hindu Mahasabha, then joined Swaraj Party and then become member of Constituent Assembly on the ticket of Congress. Later he gave up his membership and that was taken by Dr. Ambedkar. S H Prater of Madras, a representative of Anglo-Indian community of India, supported Dr. Jayakar and said that the House might frame general rules of procedure and at that stage, in absence of few men, should not interfere with framing of rules for Sections. Later in 1947, this person left India and went to Britain.
In response to this Debi Prosad Khaitan of Bengal moved his opinion. He pointed out the difference of the words “its” used by K M Munshi and “including” used by Dr. Mookherjee. He said that if word “its” would be used then there will be limited scope to Committees appointed by the Assembly and not appointed by the Sections and if word “including” would be used then the scope would be enlarged. Sarat Chandra Bose also supported this amendment. In response to issue raised by Dr. Jayakar, he replied that the Assembly was entitled to make rules governing procedure of the Union Constituent Assembly an also for the Sections and Committees that may be brought into operation by it. Although any group of members might be present or absent, the Assembly had got to proceed with its work in its entirety. That group of men join or did not join, Assembly had to work in the interest of the people of India.
B G Kher, further raised his amendment in support of “including Sections and Committee”. He suggested to add “with power to co-opt” after these words of Dr. Mookherjee. According to him, the presence of these words would allow suggestions for amendments and alterations, which could be afterwards confirmed, ratified or rejected by the House and needs of situation arising in future should be meet much better. Jairamnadas Daularam also supported this amendment by pointing out that the Assembly was Suprem body and it must had the right to frame rules for its Sections and Committees.
J B Kripalani then explained the purpose and scope of the committee. He said that the rules to be made were for the conduct of the business now and here, as there were no rules. These rules would be general in nature. Rules framed by the Committees and by Sections would be called as by-rules or by any other name. The committee would not frame exhaustive rules. As committee would not be permanent, the question of co-option need not arose at that time. If members who were absent on that day, would join future and if they had any objection to the rules, then the House could order to revise them. J B Kripalana opposed the amendment of 10 members by election and 5 members by recommendation of Chairman. He accepted the amendment regarding inclusion of the words, “including Sections and Committees”. After this voting for addition of the said words was conducted and amendment was carried out.
After this Sardar Ujjal Singh, Sikh minority of Punjab, raised the question of representation of minority in the rule committee and suggested to add words, “with power to co-opt”. These words were suggested to give representation to the minorities on quota basis, minority must be given representation either by nomination by President / Chairman or by co-option. In support of this, Sardar Harnam Singh, Sikh of Punjab, suggested to add words, “if necessary not more than five”. Ujjal Singh accepted the amendment to his proposed amendment. S H Prater seconded it. Thus this amendment was carried out.
Mohan Lal Saksena of United Provinces suggested amendment in Para 4 of the Schedule. In the proposed schedule, it was provided that if the number of nominated members were less than the vacancies, a fresh nomination should be allowed by the chairman. Usually, in such cases if number of nominated members falls short, members who are already nominated are taken as elected and for remaining seats fresh proceedings are undertaken. Hence, Mohan Lal Saksena suggested to add “shall declare the persons so nominated is duly elected and for the remaining vacancies“ these words after “Chairman” in that paragraph no. 4 of the Schedule. Sir B N Rau read the complete Paragraph along with the suggested amendment.
Some more minor amendments were proposed by other members of the House, but they were rejected. All the other amendments which were seconded and/or voted were carried out regarding the Procedure to Establish the Rules Committee.
Then announcement regarding nominations for permanent chairman of the Assembly and for members of committee were done. Nominations for the chairman had to be submitted with the Secretary on the same day till 2:30 pm. Nominations for Committee members were allowed to be submitted with the Secretary on next day till 12 noon. Then the House was adjourned till 11am of the Wednesday 11th December, 1946.
Note: This article is completely based on Constituent Assembly Debates and only for knowledge purpose.
Read Previous Parts
Facts about Constituent Assembly
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA DEBATES (PROCEEDINGS)- VOLUME I
Procedure Prescribing Election of Permanent Chairman of Constituent Assembly
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