Custody, etc., of Consolidated Funds, Contingency Funds and moneys credited to the public accounts.

Draft Article 263, Draft Constitution of India 1948

(1) Rules may be made by the President and by the Governor of a State for the purpose of securing that all moneys received on account of the revenues of India or of the State, as the case may be, shall, with such exceptions, if any, as may be specified in the rules, be paid into the public accounts of India or of the State, and the rules so made may pre- scribe, or authorise some person to prescribe, the procedure to be followed in respect of the payment of moneys into the said account, the withdrawal of moneys thereform, the custody of moneys therein and any other matter connected with or ancillary to the matters aforesaid.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in this article, Parliament may by law regulate the custody of moneys received on account of the revenues of India, their payment into the public account of India and the withdrawal of moneys from such account, and the Legislature of a State may by law regulate the custody of all moneys received on account of the revenues of the State, their payment into the public account of the State and the withdrawal of moneys from such account, and any rules made under this article shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such law.

Article 283, Constitution of India 1950

(1) The custody of the Consolidated Fund of India and the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of moneys into such Funds, the withdrawal of moneys therefrom, the custody of public moneys other than those credited to such Funds received by or on behalf of the Government of India, their payment into the public account of India and the withdrawal of moneys from such account and all other matters connected with or ancillary to matters aforesaid shall be regulated by law made by Parliament, and, until provision in that behalf is so made, shall be regulated by rules made by the President.

⁠(2) The custody of the Consolidated Fund of a State and the Contingency Fund of a State, the payment of moneys into such Funds, the withdrawal of moneys therefrom, the custody of public moneys other than those credited to such Funds received by or on behalf of the Government of the State, their payment into the public account of the State and the withdrawal of moneys from such account and all other matters connected with or ancillary to matters aforesaid shall be regulated by law made by the Legislature of the State, and, until provision in that behalf is so made, shall be regulated by rules made by the Governor or Rajpramukh of the State.

Draft Article 263 was discussed over three days- 10 August 1949, 9 September 1949 and 13 October, 1949. It requires the custody, payment and withdrawal of money received as revenue from the State or Union public accounts to be regulated by law.

On 10 August, the Chairman of the Drafting committee proposed that the the words ‘Consolidated Fund’ be substituted in place of ‘revenues of India’ in the Draft Article and also made a few technical changes to the text. The new article read as:

“Custody of Consolidated Funds, the payment of moneys in to and withdrawal of moneys from such funds.

(1) The custody of the Consolidated Fund of India, the payments of moneys into such Fund, the withdrawal of moneys there from and all other matters connected with or ancillary to the matters aforesaid shall be regulated by law made by Parliament, and until provision in that behalf is so made by Parliament, shall be regulated by rules made by the President.

(2) The custody of the Consolidated Fund of a State, the payments of moneys into such Fund and the withdrawal of moneys therefrom, and all other matters connected with or ancillary to the matters aforesaid shall be regulated by law made by the Legislature of the State, and, until provision in that behalf is so made by the Legislature of the State, shall be regulated by rules made by the Governor of the State.”    

The amendment as well as the Draft Article was adopted without any substantial discussion.

There were a few changes made to the adopted Article on 9 September 1949 and 13 October 1949, both of which were adopted without any debates or discussion.