COMMITTEE REPORTS
Draft Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Adviser
1 October 1947In September 1947, B.N. Rau, the Constitutional Advisor, started work on preparing a blueprint for the Indian Constitution. The Assembly’s directions to him were clear: consolidate all Committee reports as debated and settled by the Constituent Assembly until now into a Draft Constitution. These included provisions on fundamental rights, minority rights, the union and state executives, legislatures and judiciary. Now almost a year since Indian constitution making had begun, it was time to produce a unified working document to anchor the Assembly’s work in coming months.
Assisted by the Assembly’s Joint Secretary and Draftsman S.N. Mukerjee, Rau produced a Draft Constitution in just a month. This quick turnaround time could be explained by the fact that this was more of an exercise in compilation of Committee reports, rather than from scratch drafting.
The Draft consisted of 240 Articles, structured into 25 parts and 13 Schedules, encompassing pivotal topics such as fundamental rights, executive powers, and federalism. Notably, it prefigured many aspects of the Constitution of India 1950. Marginal notes often cited the foreign constitutions that inspired specific provisions. However, it’s crucial to highlight that several articles in BN Rau’s draft hadn’t undergone review and approval by the Assembly. For instance, sections on citizenship, directive principles of state policy, chief commissioners’ provinces, and the administration of scheduled tribe areas were clearly marked as pending Assembly review.
Why does this draft hold significance for those interested in constitution-making? Firstly, it marks the first compilation of provisions drafted by committees and BN Rau himself into a single document. Secondly, quantitatively, it offers a precursor to the final Constitution with 240 articles compared to the 395 in the Constitution of India 1950. Thirdly, this draft served as the base document for the Drafting Committee, chaired by BR Ambedkar, which produced the 1948 Draft Constitution of India.
Despite its importance, BN Rau’s draft has received less attention compared to BR Ambedkar’s draft in historical accounts of constitution-making. Notably, Arvind Elangovan’s book is one of the few substantial works focusing on it, suggesting that the provisions added by BN Rau, pending Assembly review, embodied his constitutional vision. It remains unclear from the records whether these additions truly reflected BN Rau’s vision or were merely compiled for the Assembly’s consideration. Nevertheless, BN Rau’s draft offers insights into the state of constitution-making in 1947 and provides a valuable framework for comparing against Ambedkar’s draft and the final Constitution of 1950, shedding light on constitutional choices made throughout the course of India’s constitution making process.
(I) TEXT OF THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION
October 1947
PREAMBLE
We, the people of India, seeking to promote the common good, do hereby, through our chosen representatives, enact, adopt, and give to ourselves this Constitution.
PART I–THE FEDERATION AND ITS TERRITORY AND JURISDICTION
1.(1) As from the date of commencement of this Constitution “India” shall be a Federation.
(2) The territories of the Federation shall consist of-
(a) the Provinces, hereinafter called Governors’ Provinces,
(b) the Provinces, hereinafter called Chief Commissioners’ Provinces, and
(c) the Indian States for the time being included in the First Schedule to this Constitution, hereinafter called Federated States.
(3) On and after such date as may be appointed in this behalf by Act of the Federal Parliament, each unit of the Federation shall be called a “State”.
2. The Federal Parliament may from time to time by Act include new territories in the First Schedule to this Constitution on such terms as it thinks fit and as from the date of commencement of such Act, that Schedule shall have effect as if those territories had been included therein.
3. (I) The Federal Parliament may, with the previous and consent of the Legislature of every Province and the Legislature of every Indian State whose boundaries are affected thereby, by Act-
(a) create a new unit;
(b) increase the area of any unit;
(c) diminish the area of any unit;
(d) alter the boundaries of any unit ;
(e) alter the name of any unit;
and may with the like consent make such incidental and consequential provisions by such Act as it may deem necessary or proper.
(2) When any such Act creates a new unit, then as from the date of commencement of the Act that unit shall be deemed to be included in the First Schedule to this Constitution, and when provision is made by any such Act for the alteration of the area or the boundaries or any name of any unit, then as from the date of commencement of the Act any reference in that schedule to that unit shall be construed as a reference to the unit as so altered.
Part II–CITIZENSHIP
4. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, the expression “Federal law” includes any existing law as in force for the time being.
5. At the date of commencement of this Constitution, every person-
(a) who, or either of whose parents, or any of whose grandparents was born in the territories included on that date within the Federation, or
(b) who on that date has his domicile in those territories,
shall be a citizen of the Federation:
Provided that where any such person is a citizen of another State, he may, in accordance with the provisions made in that behalf by any Federal law, elect not to accept the citizenship conferred by this section.
Explanation: A person shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have his domicile in any territory if he has a domicile therein within the meaning of Part II of the Indian Succession Act, 1925:
Provided that notwithstanding anything contained in section 11 of the said Act, a person shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have acquired a domicile in the territories included within the Federation if–
(a) before the date of commencement of this Constitution he has made and deposited in some office within those territories appointed for the purpose by the Provincial Government a declaration in writing under his hand of his desire to acquire such domicile, and
(b) he has been resident within those territories for a period of less than one month immediately preceding the time of his making such declaration.
6. After the commencement of this Constitution-
(a) any person who is born in the territories of the Federation not being the child of an alien having diplomatic immunity therein or otherwise not subject to its jurisdiction;
(b) any person either of whose parents was at the time of that person’s birth a citizen of the Federation and who fulfils any of the following conditions, namely:
(i) such parent was born within the territories of the Federation; or
(ii) such parent had become a citizen Of the Federation by naturalization or by reason of inclusion of new territory; or
(iii) such parent was at the time of such person’s birth in the service of the Federation; or
(iv) such person’s birth was registered in accordance with the provisions of any Federal law;
(c) any person who is naturalized in accordance with the provisions of any Federal law;
(d) any person born on board a ship of the Federation, whether in foreign territorial waters or not:
shall be a citizen of the Federation.
6A. Any person who is under any acknowledgment of allegiance or adherence to a foreign power or is a subject or citizen or entitled to the rights and privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power shall be disqualified for being as and for being a member of either House of the Parliament of the Federation or of the Legislature of any unit.
7. Further provision may be made by Federal law for regulating the acquisition and termination of citizenship of the Federation and in particular for avoiding double citizenship and the provisions of sections 5, 6 and 6A shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such law.
Part III–Fundamental Rights Including Directive Principles Of State Policy
Chapter I–General
8. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, –
(1) “Federal law” includes any existing law as in for the time being;
(2) “the State” includes the Government and the Legislature of the Federation and of each unit and all local or other authorities within the territories of the Federation.
9. (1) All laws in force immediately before the commencement of this Constitution in the territories included within the Federation, in so far as they are inconsistent with any of the provisions of Chapter Il of this Part, shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void.
(2) Nothing in this Constitution shall be taken to empower the State to make any law which curtails or takes away or which has the effect of curtailing or taking away any of the rights conferred by Chapter Il of this Part except by way of amendment of this Constitution under section 232 and any law made in contravention of this sub-section shall, to the extent of the contravention, be void.
(3) In this section, the expression “law” includes any ordinance, order, bye-law, rule, regulation, notification, custom or usage having the force of law in the territories of the Federation.
10. The principles of policy set forth in Chapter III of this Part are intended for the guidance of the State. While the Principles set forth in these principles are not cognizable by any court, they are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country, and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.
Chapter II–Fundamental Rights
Rights of equality
11. (1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, or any of them.
In particular, no citizen shall on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to-
(a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels, and places of public entertainment or
(b)the use of wells, tanks, roads, and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of the revenues of the State or dedicated to the use of the general public.
(2) Nothing in this section shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.
12. (1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters of employment under the State.
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste. sex, decent, place of birth or any of them, be ineligible for any office under the State.
(3) Nothing in this section shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any particular classes of citizens who, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately represented in the services under the State.
(4) Nothing in this section shall affect the operation of any law which provides that the incumbent of an office in connection with the affairs of any religious or denominational institution or any member of the governing body thereof shall be a person professing a particular religion or belonging to a particular denomination.
13. “Untouchability” in any form is abolished and the imposition of any disability on that account shall be an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law.
14. (1) No title shall be conferred by the Federation.
(2) No citizen of the Federation shall accept any title from any foreign State.
(3) No person holding any office of profit or trust under the State shall, without the consent of the Federal Government, accept any present, emolument, title, or office of any kind from or under any foreign State.
Rights of freedom
15. (1) There shall be liberty for the exercise of the following rights subject to public order and morality, namely:
(a) the right of every citizen to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) the right of the citizens to assemble peaceably and without arms;
(c) the right of the citizens to form associations or unions;
(d) the right of every citizen to move freely throughout the territories of the Federation;
(e) the right of every citizen to reside and settle in any part of the territories of the Federation, to acquire, hold and dispose of property and to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade, or business.
(2) Nothing in this section shall restrict the power of the State to make any law or to take any executive action which under this Constitution it has power to make or to take, during the period when a Proclamation of Emergency issued under sub-section (1) of section 182 is in force, or, in the case of a unit during the period of any grave emergency declared by the Government of the unit whereby the security of the unit is threatened.
(3) Nothing in this section shall affect the operation of any law which in the interests of the public including the interests of minorities and special tribes imposes restrictions on the exercise of any of the rights conferred by this section.
16. No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied equality before the law within the territories of the Federation.
17. Subject to the provisions of any Federal law, trade, commerce, and intercourse among the units shall, if between the citizens of the Federation, be free:
Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent any unit from imposing on goods imported from other units any tax to which similar goods manufactured or produced in that unit are subject, so, however, as not to discriminate between goods so imported and goods so manufactured or produced:
the Federal Parliament from imposing by Act restrictions on the freedom of trade, commerce, and intercourse among the units in the interests of public order, morality, or health or in cases of emergency
Provided further that no preference shall be given by any regulation of trade, commerce, or revenue to one unit over another:
Provided also that nothing in this section shall preclude this Federal Parliament from imposing any Act restrictions on the freedom of trade, commerce, and intercourse among the units in the interests of public order, morality, or health in cases of emergency.
18. Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited, and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law:
Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for public purposes without any discrimination on the ground of race, religion, caste, or class.
19. No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
Rights relating to religion
20. (1) Subject to public order, morality, and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice, and propagate religion.
Explanation I: The wearing and carrying of Kirpans shall be deemed to be included in the profession of the Sikh religion.
Explanation II: The rights conferred by this sub-section shall not include any economic, financial, political, or other secular activities which may be associated with religious practice.
(2) Nothing in this section shall preclude the State from making laws for social welfare and reform and for throwing open Hindu religious institutions of a public character to any class or section of Hindus.
21. Every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion and, in accordance with the provisions of law, to own, acquire and administer property, movable or immovable, and to establish and maintain institutions for religious or charitable purposes.
22. No person may be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.
23. No person attending any school maintained or receiving aid out of public funds shall be compelled to take part in any religious instruction that may be imparted in the school or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in the school or in any premises attached thereto.
Cultural and educational rights
24. (1) The interests of minorities in the territories of the Federation in respect of their language, script and culture shall be protected and no law shall be passed, or executive action taken by the State which may affect prejudicially the right conferred by this sub-section.
(2) No minority whether based on religion, community or language shall be discriminated against in regard to the admission of any person belonging to such minority into any educational institution maintained by the State.
(3) (a) All minorities whether based on religion, community or language shall be free to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
(b) The State shall not, in granting aid to schools, discriminate against schools which are under the management of minorities whether based on religion, community or language.
Miscellaneous rights
25. (1) No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.
(2) No property, movable or immovable, including any interest in, or in any company owning, any commercial or industrial undertaking shall be taken possession of or acquired for public purposes under any law authorising the taking of such possession or such acquisition unless the law provides for the payment of for the property taken possession of or acquired and either fixes the amount of the or specifies the principles on which and the manner in which the compensation is to be determined.
26. (1) No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law at the time of the commission of the offence.
(2) No person shall be punished for the same offence more than once nor, save as provided in section 132 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 as in force at the commencement of this Constitution, shall any person be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.
27. (1) Full faith and credit shall be given throughout the territories of the Federation to public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of the Federation and of every unit and the manner in which and the conditions under which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof determined shall be as provided by law.
(2) Final judgments or orders delivered or passed by civil courts in any part of the territories of the Federation shall be capable of execution anywhere within those territories according to law.
Rights to constitutional remedies
28. (1) The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights provided for in this chapter is guaranteed.
(2) Such right shall not be suspended except when a Proclamation of Emergency issued under sub-section (1) of section 182 is in force, or a grave emergency, declared by the Government of any unit whereby the security of the unit threatened, exists.
29. The Federal Parliament may by Act determine to what extent any of the rights guaranteed in this chapter shall in their application to the members of the armed forces or the forces charged with the maintenance of public order be restricted or abrogated so as to ensure the proper discharge of their duties and the maintenance of discipline among them.
30. As soon as may be after the commencement of this Constitution provision shall be made by Act of the Federal Parliament-
(a) for those matters which under this chapter are required to be provided for by legislation in so far as provision with respect to such matters has not been made in any existing law; and
(b) for prescribing punishments for those acts which are declared to be offences under this chapter and are not punishable under any existing law.
Chapter III–Directive Principles of State Policy
31. The Stale shall strive to promote the welfare of the whole people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic, and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.
32. The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing-
(i) that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood;
(ii) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;
(iii) that the operation of free competition does not result in the concentration of the ownership or control of essential commodities in a few individuals to the common detriment;
(iv) that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;
(v) that the strength and health of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength;
(vi) that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.
33. The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in case of unemployment, old age, sickness, disablement, and other cases of undeserved want.
34. The State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief for workers.
35. The State shall endeavour to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities.
36. The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code.
37. Every citizen is entitled to free primary education, and it shall be the duty of the State to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory primary education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.
38. The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.
39. The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties.
40. It shall be the obligation of the State to protect every monument or place or object of artistic or historic interest, declared by Federal law to be of national importance, from spoliation, destruction, removal, disposal, or export, as the case may be, and to preserve and maintain according to Federal law all such monuments or places or objects.
41. The State shall promote international peace and security by the prescription of open, just and honourable relations between nations, by the firm establishment of the justice and the scrupulous respect for treaty obligations in the dealings of organised people with one another.
PART IV
Chapter I–The Federal Executive
The President
42. The head of the Federation shall be the President (Rashtrapati) who shall be elected in the manner provided in the next succeeding section.
43. (1) The President shall be elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of-
(a) the elected members of both Houses of the Federal Parliament, and
(b) the elected members of the Legislatures of the units.
(2) For the purpose of securing uniformity in the scale of representation of different units at such election, the votes of the elected members of the Federal Parliament and of the Legislature of each unit shall be weighted in the following manner, namely:
(a) the population of each unit shall be divided by the total number of elected members of the Legislature of the unit;
(b) each such member shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient so obtained,
(c) if after taking the multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member shall be further increased by one;
(d) the average of the number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislatures of the units under the foregoing provisions, that is to say, the total number of votes assigned to such members divided by the total number of such members, shall be the number of votes to be assigned to each member of either House of the Federal Parliament, fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.
Or alternatively, –
(2) For the purpose of securing uniformity in the scale of representation of the units at such election, the number of the elected members which the Legislature of each unit should have on the scale of one member for every lakh of the population of the unit shall first be calculated disregarding any fraction in such calculation ; and if the total number of elected members exceeds the number of members so calculated, the excess shall be excluded by lot. and only the remaining elected members shall be deemed to be the members of the electoral college for the purpose of the election of the President under sub-section.
(3) The election of the President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
Explanation: In this section, the expression “the Legislature of a unit” means, where the Legislature is bicameral, the Lower House of the Legislature and the expression “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding decennial census.
44. The President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office:
Provided that-
(a) a President may. by resignation under his hand addressed to the Chairman of the Council of States and the Speaker of the House of the People, resign his office:
(b) a President may, for violation of the Constitution, be removed from office by impeachment in the manner provided in section 49;
(c) a President shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.
45. A person who holds, or who has held, office as President shall be eligible for re-election to that office once, but only once.
46. (1) No person shall be eligible for election as President unless he-
(a) is a citizen of the Federation,
(b) has completed the age of thirty-five years, and
(c) is qualified for election as a member of the House of the People.
(2) A person shall not be eligible for election as President if he holds any office or position of emolument under the Federal Government or the Government of any unit or under any local or other authority subject to the control of either Government.
47. (1) The President shall not be a member either of the Federal Parliament or of the Legislature of any unit, and if a member of the Federal Parliament or of the Legislature of any unit be elected President, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in the Federal Parliament or such Legislature, as the case may be, on the date on which he enters upon his office as President.
(2) The President shall not hold any other office or position of emolument.
(3) The President shall have an official residence and there shall be paid to the President such emoluments and allowances as may be determined by Act of the Federal Parliament and until provision in that behalf is so made, the President shall receive such emoluments and allowances as are specified in the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(4) The emoluments and allowances of the President shall not be diminished during his term of office.
48. Every President and every person acting as President shall enter upon his office after making and subscribing in the presence of the members of both Houses of the Federal Parliament a declaration according to the form set in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
49. (1) When a President is to be impeached for violation of the constitution the charge shall be preferred by of the either House of the Federal Parliament, but no proposal President to prefer such charge shall be entertained by that House Constitution, except upon a notice of motion in writing signed by not Art. less than thirty members of the House and no such proposal shall be adopted by that House except upon a resolution of that House supported by not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House.
(2) When a charge has been so preferred by either House of the Federal Parliament, the other House shall investigate the charge or cause the charge to be investigated and the President shall have the right to appear and to be represented at such investigation.
(3) If as a result of the investigation a resolution is passed, supported by not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the House by which the charge was investigated or caused to be investigated, declaring that the charge preferred against the President has been sustained, such resolution shall have the effect of removing the President from his office as from the date on which the resolution is so passed.
50. (1) An election to fill the vacancy occurring at the end of the term of office of a President shall be held before the date of expiration of the term.
(2) An election to fill a vacancy occurring by reason of the death, resignation or removal of the President shall be held as soon as possible after, and in no case later than six months from, the date of occurrence of the vacancy; and the person elected to fill the vacancy shall be entitled to hold office for the full term of five years as provided in section 44.
51.(1) In the event of the occurrence of any vacancy in the office of the President by reason of his death, resignation, or removal, or when the President is unable to discharge his functions owing to absence, illness or any other cause, his functions shall be discharged by the Vice- President until the date on which a new President elected in accordance with the provisions of this chapter to fill such vacancy enters upon his office or until the date on which the President resumes his duties, as the case may be.
(2) The Vice-President shall be elected by the members of both Houses of the Federal Parliament assembled at a joint meeting in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
(3) The Vice-President shall, subject to the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 64, be the ex-officio Chairman of the Council of States and shall not hold any other office or position of emolument.
(4) The Vice-President shall not be a member either of the Federal Parliament or of the Legislature of any unit and if a member of the Federal Parliament or of the Legislature of any unit be elected Vice-President, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in the Federal Parliament or such Legislature, as the case may be, on the date on which he enters upon his office as Vice-President.
(5) No person shall be eligible for election as Vice-President unless he-
(a) is a citizen of the Federation
(b) has completed the age of thirty-five years, and
(c) is qualified for election as a member of the Council of States
(6) A person shall not be eligible for election as Vice-President if he holds any office or position of emolument under the Federal Government or the Government of any unit or under any local or other authority subject to the control of either Government.
(7) The Vice-President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office;
(a) a Vice-President may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign his office;
(b) a Vice-President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People, but no resolution for the purpose of this clause shall be moved unless at least fourteen days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution;
(c) a Vice-President shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.
(8) An election to fill the vacancy occurring at the end of the term of office of a Vice-President shall be held before the date of expiration of the term.
(9) An election to fill a vacancy occurring by reason of the death, resignation or removal of a Vice-President shall be held as soon as possible after the occurrence of the vacancy, and the person elected to fill such vacancy shall be entitled to hold office for the full term of five years as provided in sub-section (7).
52. (1) All doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with the election of a President or Vice-President shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court of India whose decision shall be final.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Acts of the Federal Parliament may regulate any matter relating to connected with the election of a President or Vice-President.
53. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive authority of the Federation shall be vested in the President and may be exercised by him either directly or through persons acting under his authority.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision–
(a) the supreme command of the Defence Forces of the Federation shall be vested in the President;
(b) the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites, or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence shall be vested in the President–
(i) in all cases where the conviction is by a Court Martial;
(ii) where the conviction is by a court other than a Court Martial, in the case of offences against Federal laws relating to matters with respect to which the Federal Parliament has, and the Legislature of the unit in which the person is convicted has not, the power to make laws :
Provided that nothing in this clause shall affect any power of any officer of the Armed Forces of the Federation to suspend, remit or commute a sentence passed by a Court Martial;
(c) where any person has been sentenced to death in a Province, the President shall have all such powers of suspension, remission, or commutation of the sentence as are vested in the Provincial Government under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
(3) Nothing in this section shall prevent the Federal Parliament from conferring functions on authorities other than the President or be deemed to transfer to him any functions conferred by any existing law on any Provincial Government, court, officer, or local or other authority.
54. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive executive authority of the Federation shall extend –
(a) to the matters with respect to which the Federal Parliament has power to make laws; and
(b) to the exercise of such rights, authority, and jurisdiction as are exercisable by the Federation by virtue of any treaty or agreement:
Provided that the said authority does not, save as expressly provided in this Constitution, extend in any unit to matters with respect to which the Legislature of the unit has power to make laws.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section a unit and any officer or authority thereof may, until otherwise provided by the Federal Parliament or other competent authority, continue to exercise, in matters with respect to which the Federal Parliament has power to make laws for that unit, such executive authority or functions as the unit or officer or authority thereof could exercise immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.
Administration of Federal Affairs
55. There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President in the exercise of his functions.
56. (1) The Prime Minister shall be chosen and summoned by the President and the other Ministers shall be chosen by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister; and all the Ministers shall hold office during the pleasure of the President.
(2) The Ministers shall before entering upon their offices make a declaration in the presence of the President according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
(3) The Council shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People.
(4) A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of either House of the Federal Parliament shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.
(5) The salaries of Ministers shall be such as the Federal Parliament may from time to time by Act determine and, until the Parliament so determine, shall be as specified in the Second Schedule to this Constitution:
Provided that the salary of a Minister shall not be varied during his term of office.
(6) The question whether any, and if so, what advice was tendered by Ministers to the President shall not be inquired into in any court.
57. (1) The President shall appoint a person, being a person qualified to be appointed a judge of the Supreme Court, to be Advocate General for the Federation.
(2) It shall be the duty of the Advocate-General to give advice to the Federal Government upon such legal matters, and to perform such other duties of a legal character, as may from time to time be referred or assigned to him by the President and to discharge the functions conferred on him by or under this Constitution or any other law for the time being in force; and in the performance of his duties the Advocate-General shall have right of audience in all courts in any Governor’s or Chief Commissioner’s Province and, in a case in which the interests of the Federation are concerned, in all courts in any Federated State.
(3) The Advocate-General shall hold office during the pleasure of the President and shall receive such remuneration as the President may determine.
58. (1) All executive action of the Federal Government shall be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
(2) Orders and other instruments made and executed in the name of the President shall be authenticated in such manner as may be specified in rules to be made by the President, and the validity of an order or instrument which is so authenticated shall not be called in question on the ground that it is not an order or instrument made or executed by the President.
Chapter II–The Federal Parliament
General
59. The legislative power of the Federation shall be vested in, the Parliament of the Federation which shall consist of the President and two Houses to be known respectively as the Council of States and the House of the People (in this Constitution referred to as “the Federal Parliament” or “the Parliament”).
60. (1) The Council of States shall consist of not more than one-half of the total number of members of the House of the People of whom–
(a) not more than twenty-five members shall be chosen from panels of candidates constituted under sub-section (2); and
(b) the remainder shall be representatives of the units:
Provided that the total number of representatives of Indian States shall not exceed forty percent of this remainder,
(2) Before the first general election and, thereafter, before each biennial election to the Council of States under sub-section (9) five panels of candidates shall be formed which shall respectively contain the names of persons having knowledge or practical experience of the following interests and services, namely:
(a) National language and culture, literature, art, education and such professional interests as may be defined by Act of the Federal Parliament;
(b) agriculture and allied interests;
(c) labour;
(d) industry and commerce including banking, finance, accountancy, engineering and architecture;
(e) public administration and services.
(3) Each panel of candidates constituted under sub-section (2) shall contain at least twice the number to be elected from such panel.
(4) For bye-elections, sub-sections (2) and (3) shall have effect subject to such adaptations and modifications as may be prescribed by Act of the Federal Parliament.
(5) (a) The House of the People shall consist of not more than five hundred representatives of the people of the territories of the Federation directly chosen by the voters on the basis of adult suffrage in territorial constituencies delimited by or under Acts of the Federal Parliament and until they are so delimited, in the territorial constituencies specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Constitution:
Provided that seats shall be reserved in the House of the People for-
(i) the Muslim community and the Scheduled Castes;
(ii) the Scheduled Tribes in every Governor’s Province; and
(iii) the Indian Christian community in the Provinces of Madras and Bombay,
according to the scale prescribed in clause (b) of this sub-section:
Provided further that if the President is of opinion that the Anglo-Indian community is not adequately represented in the House of the People, he may nominate not more than two members of the community to the House of the People.
(b) The number of representatives to be chosen for each territorial constituency shall be on a scale of not less than one representative for every 750,000 of the population and not more than one representative for every 500,000 of the population of the constituency:
Provided that the ratio of the total number of representatives of the Indian States to the total population of such States shall not exceed the ratio of the total number of representatives of the Governors’ and Chief Commissioners’ Provinces to the total population of such Provinces.
(5-A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (5), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands shall be represented in the House of the People by a single member to be nominated by the President.
(6) The ratio between the number of members to be chosen under sub-section (5), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands shall be represented in the House of the People by a single member to be nominated by the President.
(7) Until otherwise provided by Act of the Federal Parliament all matters relating to or connected with elections to either House of the Federal Parliament shall be regulated by the relevant provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Constitution.
(8) Upon the completion of each decennial census the representation of the several territorial constituencies in the House of the People shall be readjusted by such authority, in such manner and with effect from such date as the Federal Parliament by Act determine:
Provided that such readjustment shall not affect representation to the House of the People until the dissolution of the then existing House.
(9) The Council of States shall be a permanent body not subject to dissolution, but as near as may be one-third of the members thereof shall retire in every second year in accordance with the provisions in that behalf contained in the Fourth Schedule to this Constitution.
(10) The House of the People, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for four years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer, and the expiration of the said period of four years shall operate as the dissolution of the House:
Provided that the said period may, during an emergency, be extended by the President for a period not exceeding one year at a time and not extending in any case beyond the period of six months from the expiry of the period of the emergency.
(11) Where Indian States are grouped together for the purpose of returning representatives to the Council of States, the entire group shall be deemed to be a single unit for the purposes of this section.
61. (1) The Houses of the Federal Parliament shall be summoned to meet once at least in every year, and twelve months shall not intervene between their last sitting in one session and the date appointed for their first sitting in the next session.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this section the President may from time to time:
(a) summon the Houses or either House to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit;
(b) prorogue the Houses;
(c) dissolve the House of the People.
(3) The Houses shall be summoned to meet for their first session as early as possible after the commencement of this Constitution.
62. (1) The President may address either House of the Federal Parliament or both Houses assembled together, and for that purpose require the attendance of members.
(2) The President may send messages to either House of the Federal Parliament, whether with respect to a Bill then pending in the Federal Parliament or otherwise, and a House to which any message is so sent shall with all convenient dispatch consider any matter required by the message to be taken into consideration.
63. Every Minister and the Advocate-General of the Federation Shall have the right to speak in, and otherwise to take part in the proceedings of, either House, any joint sitting of the Houses and any committee of the Federal Parliament of which he may be named a member but shall not by virtue of this section be entitled to vote.
64. (1) The Vice-President of the Federation shall be ex-officio Chairman of the Council of States:
Provided that during any period when the Vice-President discharges the functions of the President under section 51, he shall not perform the duties of the office of the Chairman of the Council of States and the said office shall during such period be deemed to be vacant.
(2) The Council of States shall, as soon as may be choose a member of the Council to be Deputy Chairman thereof, and so often as the office of Deputy Chairman becomes vacant, the Council shall choose another member to be Deputy Chairman thereof.
(3) A member holding office as Deputy Chairman of the Council of States shall vacate his office if he ceases to be a member of the Council, may at any time resign his office by writing under his hand addressed to the Chairman and may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Council passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council; but no resolution for the purpose of this subsection shall be moved unless at least fourteen days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution.
(4) While the office of Chairman is vacant, the duties of the office shall be performed by the Deputy Chairman, or if the office of Deputy Chairman is also vacant, by such member of the Council of States as the President may appoint for the purpose, and during any absence of the Chairman from any sitting of the Council, the Deputy Chairman or, if he is also absent, such person as may be determined by the rules of procedure of the Council, or, if no such person is present, such other person as may be determined by the Council shall act as Chairman.
(5) There shall be paid to the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of States such salaries as may be respectively fixed by Act of the Federal Parliament, and until provision in that behalf is so made, such salaries as the President may determine.
(6) The House of the People shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the House to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker thereof, and. so often as the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker becomes vacant, the House shall choose another member to be Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be.
(7) A member holding office as Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of the People shall vacate his office if he ceases to be a member of the House of the People, may at any time resign his office by writing under his hand addressed, in the case where such member is the Speaker, to the Deputy Speaker and in the case where such member is the Deputy Speaker, to the Speaker, and may be removed from his office by a resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House; but no resolution for the purpose of this section shall be moved unless at least fourteen days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution
Provided that, whenever the House of the People is dissolved, the Speaker shall not vacate his office until immediately before the first meeting of the House of the People after the dissolution.
(8) The provisions of sub-sections (4) and (5) of this section shall apply in relation to the House of the People as they apply in relation to the Council of States with the substitution of the titles “Speaker” and “Deputy Speaker” for the titles “Chairman” and “Deputy Chairman” respectively, and with the substitution of references to the “House of the People” for references to the “Council of States”.
65. (1) Save as provided in the last preceding section, all questions at any sitting or joint sitting of the Houses shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present and voting, other than the Chairman or person acting as such.
The Chairman or Speaker or person acting as such shall not vote in the first instance but shall have and exercise a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes.
(2) A House of the Federal Parliament shall have power to act notwithstanding any vacancy in the membership thereof, and any proceedings in the Federal Parliament shall be valid notwithstanding that it is discovered subsequently that some person who was not entitled so to do sat or voted or otherwise took part in the proceedings.
(3) If at any time during a meeting of a House, less than one-sixth of the total number of members of the House are present, it shall be the duty of the Chairman or Speaker or person acting as such either to adjourn the House, or to the meeting until at least one-sixth of the members are present.
66. Every member of either House of the Federal Parliament shall, before taking his seat, make and subscribe before the President or some person appointed by him, a declaration according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
67. (1) No person shall be a member of both Houses of the Federal Parliament and rules made by the President shall provide for the vacation by a person who is chosen a member of both Houses of his seat in one House or the other.
(2) If a member of either House of the Federal Parliament
(a) becomes subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in sub-section (1) of the next succeeding section; or
(b) resigns his seat by writing under his hand addressed to the Chairman or the Speaker, as the case may be, his seat shall thereupon become vacant.
(3) If for a period of sixty days a member of either House of the Federal Parliament is without permission of the House absent from all meetings thereof, the House may declare his seat vacant
Provided that in computing the said period of sixty days no account shall be taken of any period during which the House is prorogued or is adjourned for more than four consecutive days.
68. (1) A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of the Federal Parliament-
(a) if he holds any office of profit under the Federation or any unit other than an office declared by Act of the Federal Parliament no! to disqualify its holder;
(b) if he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court;
(c) if he is an undischarged insolvent;
(d) if, whether before or after the commencement of this Constitution, he has been convicted, or has, the proceedings for questioning the validity or regularity of an election, been found to have been guilty, of any offence or corrupt or illegal practice relating to elections which has been specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Constitution or has been declared by Act of the Federal Parliament to be an offence or practice entailing disqualification for membership of the Federal Parliament, unless the period specified in that behalf in that Schedule or by or under the provisions of that Act has elapsed;
(e) if, whether before or after the commencement of this Constitution, he has been convicted of any other offence and sentenced to transportation or to imprisonment for not less than two years, unless a period of five years, or such shorter period as the President may allow in any particular case, ha; elapsed since his release;
(f) if, having been nominated as a candidate for the Federal Parliament or any Provincial Legislature or having acted as an election agent of any person so nominated, he has failed to lodge a return of election expenses within the time and in the manner required by or under the provisions of the Fourth Schedule to this Constitution or any law for the time being in force unless five years have elapsed from the date by which the return ought to have been lodged or the President has removed the disqualification:
Provided that a disqualification under clause (f) of this sub-section shall not take effect until the expiration of two months from the date by which the return ought to have been lodged or of such longer period as the President may in any particular case allow.
(2) A person shall not be capable of being chosen a member of either House of the Federal Parliament while he is serving a sentence of transportation or of imprisonment for a criminal offence.
(3) When a person who, by virtue of a conviction or a conviction and a sentence becomes disqualified by virtue of clause (d) or clause (e) of sub-section (1) of this section is at the date of the disqualification a member of the Federal Parliament, his seat shall, notwithstanding anything in this or the last preceding section, not become vacant by reason of the disqualification until three months have elapsed from the date thereof or, if within those three months an appeal or petition for revision is brought in respect of the conviction or the sentence, until that appeal or petition is disposed of, but during any period during which his membership is preserved by this sub-section, he shall not sit or vote.
(4) For the purposes of this section a person shall not be deemed to hold an office of profit under the Federation or any unit by reason only that he is a Minister either for the Federation or for a Province.
69. If a person sits or votes as a member of either House of the Federal Parliament before he has complied with the requirements of section 66, or when he is not qualified or is disqualified for membership thereof, or when he is prohibited from so doing by the provisions of sub-section (3) of the last preceding section, he shall be liable in respect of each day on which he so sits or votes to a penalty of five hundred rupees to be recovered as a debt due to the Federation.
70. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and to the rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of the Federal Parliament, there shall be freedom of speech in the Federal Parliament, and no member of the Federal Parliament shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in the Federal Parliament or any committee thereof, and no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of either House of the Federal Parliament of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.
(2) In other respects, the privileges, and immunities of members of the Houses shall be such as may from time to time be defined by Act of the Federal Parliament, and, until so defined, shall be such as are enjoyed by the members of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the commencement of this Constitution.
(3) The provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section shall apply in relation to persons who by virtue of this Constitution have the right to speak in, and otherwise take part in the proceedings of, a House of the Federal Parliament as they apply in relation to members of the Federal Parliament.
71. Members of either House of the Federal Parliament shall be entitled to receive such salaries and allowances as may from time to time be determined by Act of the Federal Parliament and, until provision in that respect is so made, allowances at such rates and upon such conditions as were immediately before the date of commencement of this Constitution applicable in the case of members of the Legislature of the Dominion of India.
Legislative Procedure
72. (1) Subject to the special provisions of this Part of this Constitution with respect to Money Bills, a Bill may originate in either House of the Federal parliament.
(2) Subject to the provisions of sections 73 and 74, a Bill shall not be deemed to have been passed by the Houses of the Federal parliament unless it has been agreed to by both Houses, either without amendment or with such amendments only as are agreed to by both Houses.
(3) A Bill pending in the Federal Parliament shall not lapse by reason of the prorogation of the Houses.
(4) A Bill pending in the Council of States which has not been passed by the House of the People shall not lapse on a dissolution of the House of the People.
(5) A Bill which is pending in the House of the People, or which having been passed by the House of the People pending in the Council of States shall, subject to the provisions of section 73, lapse on a dissolution of the House of the People.
73. (1) If after a Bill has been massed by one House and transmitted to the other House
(a) the Bill is rejected by the other House; or
(b) the Houses have finally disagreed as to the amendments to be made in the Bill; or
(c) more than six months elapse from the date of the reception of the Bill by the other House without the Bill being presented to the President for his assent, the President may. unless the Bill has lapsed by reason of a dissolution of the House of the People, notify to the Houses by message if they are sitting or by public notification if they are not sitting, his intention to summon them to meet in a joint sitting for the purpose of deliberating and voting on the Bill:
Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to a Bill.
(2) In reckoning any such period of six months as is to in sub-section (1), no account shall bce taken of any time during which the Federal Parliament is prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for four days.
(3) Where the President has under sub-section (1) notified his intention of summoning the Houses to meet in a joint sitting, neither House shall proceed further with the Bill, but the President may at any time after the date of his notification summon the Houses to meet in a joint sitting for the purpose specified in the notification and. if he does so, the Houses shall meet accordingly.
(4) If at the joint sitting of the two Houses the Bill with such amendments, if any, as are agreed to in joint sitting. is passed by a majority of the total number of members of both Houses present and voting, it shall be deemed for the purposes of this Constitution to have been passed by both Houses:
Provided that at a joint sitting-
(a) if the Bill, having been passed by one House. has not been passed by the other House with amendments and returned to the House in which it originated, no amendment shall be proposed to the Bill other than such amendments (if any) as are made necessary by the delay in the passage of the Bill;
(b) if the Bill has been so passed and returned. only such amendments as aforesaid shall be proposed to the Bill and such other amendments as are relevant to the matters with respect to which the Houses have not agreed; and the decision of the person presiding as to the amendments which are admissible under this sub-section shall be final.
(5) A joint sitting may be held under this section and a Bill passed thereat, notwithstanding that a dissolution of the House of the People has intervened since the President notified his intention to summon the Houses to meet therein.
74. (1) A Money Bill shall not be introduced in the Council of States.
(2) After a Money Bill has been passed by the House of the People it shall be transmitted to the Council of States for its recommendations and the Council of States shall within a period of thirty days from the date of its receipt of the Bill return the Bill to the House of the People with its recommendations and the House of the People may thereupon either accept or reject all or any of the recommendations of the Council of States.
(3) If the House of the People accepts any of the recommendations of the Council of States, the Money Bill shall be deemed to have passed by both Houses with the amendments recommended by the Council of States and accepted by the House of the People, and if the House of the People does not accept any of the recommendations of the Council of States, it shall be deemed to have been passed by both Houses in the form in which it was passed by the House of the People without any of the amendments recommended by the Council of States.
(4) If a Money Bill passed by the House of the People and transmitted to the Council of States for its recommendations is not returned to the House of the People within the said period of thirty days, it shall be deemed to have been passed by both Houses at the expiration of the said period of thirty days in the form in which it was passed by the House of the People.
75. (1) For the purposes of this chapter, a Bill shall be deemed to be a Money Bill if it makes provision-
(a) for imposing or increasing any tax; or
(b) for regulating the borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Federal Government, or for amending the law with respect to any financial obligations undertaken or to be undertaken by the Federal Government; or
(c) for declaring any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the revenues of the Federation, or for increasing the amount of any such expenditure.
(2) A Bill shall not be deemed to be a Money Bill by reason only that it provides for the imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties, or for the demand or payment of fees for licenses or fees for services rendered or by reason that it provides for the imposition or increase of any tax by any local authority or body for local purposes.
(3) If any question arises whether a Bill is a Money Bill or not, the decision of the Speaker of the House of the People thereon shall be final.
77. (1) The President shall in respect of every financial year cause to be laid before both the Houses of the Federal Parliament a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Federation for that year, in this Part of this Constitution referred to as the “annual financial statement”.
(2) The estimates of expenditure embodied in the annual financial statement shall show separately-
(a) the sums required to meet expenditure described by this Constitution as expenditure charged upon the revenues of the Federation; and
(b) the sums required to meet other expenditure proposed to be made from the revenues of the Federation, and shall distinguish expenditure on revenue account from other expenditure,
(3) The following expenditure shall be expenditure charged on the revenues of the Federation-
(a) the emoluments and allowances of the President and other expenditure relating to his office;
(b) debt charges for which the Federation is liable including interest, sinking fund charges and redemption charges, and other expenditure relating to the raising of loans and the service and redemption of debt;
(c) the salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of judges of the Supreme Court and the pensions payable to or in respect of judges of the Federal Court or of any High Court which immediately before the commencement of this Constitution exercised jurisdiction within the territories of the Provinces of the Federation;
(d) any sums required to satisfy any judgment, decree, or award of any. court or arbitral tribunal;
(e) any other expenditure declared by this Constitution or any Act of the Federal Parliament to be so charged.
Procedure in Financial Matters
78. (1) So much of the estimates of expenditure as relates to expenditure charged upon the revenues of the Federation shall not be submitted to the vote of the Federal Parliament, but nothing in this sub-section shall be construed as preventing the discussion in either House of the Federal Parliament of any of these estimates.
(2) So much of the said estimates as relates to other expenditure shall be submitted in the form of demands for grants to the House of the People and the House of the People shall have power to assent or to refuse to assent to any demand, or to assent to any demand subject to a reduction of the amount specified therein,
(3) No demand for a grant shall be made except on the recommendation of the President.
79. (1) The President shall authenticate by his signature of a schedule specifying-
(a) the grants made by the House of the People under charged on the revenues of the Federation, but not exceeding in the case of any sum, the sum shown in the statement previously laid before the Federal Parliament.
(2) The schedule so authenticated shall be laid before the House of the people but shall not be open to discussion or vote in the Federal Parliament.
(3) Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding section, no expenditure from the revenues of the Federation shall be deemed to be duly authorised unless it is specified in the schedule so authenticated.
Supplementary
80. If in respect of any financial year further expenditure from the revenues of the Federation becomes necessary over and above the expenditure theretofore authorised for that year, the President shall cause to be laid before both the Houses of the Federal Parliament a supplementary statement showing the estimated amount of that expenditure, and the provisions of the preceding sections shall have effect in relation to that statement and that expenditure as they have effect in relation to the annual financial statement and the expenditure mentioned therein.
81. (1) A Money Bill or an thereto shall not be introduced or moved except on the recommendation would involve expenditure from the revenues of the Federation shall not be passed by either House of the Federal Parliament unless the President has recommended to that House the consideration of the Bill.
(2) A bill which, if enacted and brought into operation, would involve expenditure from the revenues of the Federation shall not be passed by either House of the Federal Parliament unless the Parliament has recommended to that House the consideration of the Bill.
Procedure Generally
82. (1) Each House of the Federal Parliament may make rules for regulating, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, its procedure and the conduct of its business.
(2) The President, after consultation with the Chairman of the Council of States and the Speaker of the House of the People, may make rules as to the procedure with respect to joint sittings of, and communications between the two Houses.
(3) Until rules are made under this section, the rules ot procedure and standing orders in force immediately before the commencement of this Constitution with respect to the Legislature of the Dominion of India shall have effect in relation to the Federal Parliament subject to such modifications and adaptations as may be made therein by the Chairman of the Council of States or the Speaker of the House of the People, as the case may be.
(4) At a joint sitting of the two Houses the Chairman of the Council of States, or in his absence such person as may be determined by rules of procedure made under this section, shall preside.
83. (1) In the Federal Parliament business shall be transacted in Hindustani (Hindi or Urdu) or in the English language:
Provided that the Chairman of the Council of States or the Speaker of the House of the People, as the case may be, may permit any member who cannot adequately express himself in either language to address the House in his mother tongue.
(2) The Chairman of the Council of States or the Speaker of the House of the People shall, whenever he thinks fit, make arrangements for making available in the Council of States or the House of the People, as the case may he, a summary of the speech delivered by a member in a language other than that used by the member and such summary shall be included in the record of the proceedings of the House in which such speech has been delivered.
84. (1) No discussion shall take place in the Federal Parliament with respect to the conduct of any judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court in the discharge of his duties except upon a motion for presenting an address to the President praying for the removal of the judge as hereinafter provided.
(2) In this section the reference to a High Court shall be construed as including a reference to any court in a Federated State which is a High Court for any Of the poses of Chapter IV of Part IV of this Constitution.
85. (1) The validity of any proceedings in the Federal Parliament shall not be called in question on the ground of any alleged irregularity of procedure.
(2) No officer or other member of the Federal Parliament in whom powers are vested by or under this Constitution for regulating procedure or the conduct of business, or for maintaining order, in the Parliament shall be subject to the jurisdiction of any court in respect of the exercise by him of those powers.
Chapter III–Legislative Powers of the President
86. (1) If at any time when the Federal Parliament is not in session the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action,
Parliament he may promulgate such Ordinances as the circumstances appear to him to require.
(2) An Ordinance promulgated under this section shall have the same force and effect as an Act of the Federal Parliament assented to by the President, but every such Ordinance-
(a) shall be laid before the Federal Parliament and shall cease to operate at the expiration of six weeks from the reassembly of the Federal Parliament, or, if before the expiration of that period resolutions disapproving it are passed by both Houses, upon the passing of the second of those resolutions; and
(b) may be withdrawn at any time by the President.
(3) If and so far as an Ordinance under this section makes any provision which the Federal Parliament would not under this Constitution be competent to enact, it shall be void.
Chapter IV–The Federal Judicature
87. (1) There shall be a Supreme Court in the Federation consisting of a Chief Justice and such number of other judges not being less than ten as the Federal Parliament may by Act prescribe.
(2) Every judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with such of the judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts in the Provinces as may be necessary for the purpose and shall hold office until he attains the age of sixty-five years:
Provided that in the case of appointment of a judge, other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice to the Supreme Court shall always be consulted.
Provided further that-
(a) a judge may by resignation under his hand addressed to the President resign his office;
(b) a judge may be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in sub-section (4).
(3) A shall not be qualified for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court unless he is a citizen of the Federation and-
(a) has been for at least five years a judge of a High Court or of two or more such courts in succession; or
(b) is a barrister of England or Northern Ireland of at least ten years’ standing or a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland of at least ten years’ standing; or
(c) has been for at least ten years a pleader of a High Court or of two or more such courts succession.
Explanation I: In this sub-section ‘High Court’ means a High Court which exercises, or which the commencement of this Constitution exercised, jurisdiction in any territory included in the Federation.
Explanation II: In computing for the purpose of this sub-section the standing of a barrister or a member of the Faculty of Advocates, or the period during which a person has been a pleader, any period during which a person has held judicial once after he became a barrister, a member of the Faculty of Advocates or a pleader, as the case may be, shall be included.
(4) A judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his once except by an order of the President passed on an address being presented in accordance with the procedure prescribed in this behalf by an Act of the Federal Parliament to the President by both Houses of the Federal Parliament in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
(5) Every person appointed to be a judge of the Supreme Court shall, before he enters upon his office, make and subscribe before the President or some person appointed by him a declaration according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
88. The judges of the Supreme Court shall be entitled to such salaries and allowances including allowances for expenses of equipment and traveling upon and to such rights in respect of leave and pension may from time to time be fixed by or under Act of the Federal Parliament, and until they are so fixed shall be entitled to such salaries, allowances, rights in respect of leave of absence or pension as are specified in the Second Schedule to this Constitution :
Provided that neither the salary of a judge nor his rights in respect of leave of absence or pension shall be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment.
89. If the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court becomes vacant, or if the Chief Justice is, by reason of absence or for any other reason, unable to perform the duties of his office, those duties shall, until some person appointed by the President to the vacant office has entered on the duties thereof or until the Chief Justice has resumed his duties, as the case may be, be performed by such one of the other judges of the court as the President may appoint for the purpose.
90. (1) If at any time there should not be a quorum of the Judges of the Supreme Court available to hold or continue any session of the court, owing to a vacancy or vacancies, or to the absence through illness or on leave or in the discharge of other duties assigned by statute or otherwise, or the disqualification of a judge or judges, or if by reason of any temporary increase in the business of the Supreme Court the strength of the judges of the court should for the time being be increased, the Chief Justice, or in his absence the senior puisne judge may in writing request the attendance at the sittings of the court as an ad hoc Judge for such period as may be necessary, of a Judge of a High Court to be designated in writing by the Chief Justice or in his absence by any acting Chief Justice or the senior puisne judge of such High Court upon such request being made to him in writing.
(2) It shall be the duty of the judge, who has been so designated, in priority to other duties of his office to attend the Sittings of the Supreme Court at the time and for the period for which his attendance shall be required, and while so attending he shall possess the powers and privileges and shall discharge the duties of a puisne judge of Supreme Court.
91. The Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall sit in Delhi and at such other place or places, if any, as the Chief Justice may, with the approval of the President, from time to time appoint.
92. Subject to the provisions of this Constitution. the Supreme Court shall, to the exclusion of any other court have an original jurisdiction in any dispute between any two or more of the following parties, that is to say, the Federation and the units, if and in so far as the dispute involves any question (whether of law or fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends:
Provided that the said jurisdiction shall not extend to a dispute to which an Indian State is a party if the dispute arises out of any provision of a treaty, agreement, engagement, sanad or other similar instrument which was entered into or executed before the commencement of this Constitution, or which expressly provides that the said jurisdiction shall not extend to such a dispute.
93. (1) An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment, decree or final order of a High Court of a Province, if the High Court certifies that the case involves a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of this Constitution and it shall be the duty of every such High Court to consider in every case whether or not any such question is involved and of its own motion to give or to withhold a certificate accordingly.
(2) Where such a certificate is given. any party in the case may appeal to the Supreme Court on the ground that any such question as aforesaid has been wrongly decided and, with the leave of the Supreme Court, on any other ground as well.
94. Subject to such rules as the Supreme Court may make in this behalf, an appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from a judgment, decree, or final order of a High Court in a Province without any such certificate as aforesaid, if
(a) the amount or value of the subject matter of the dispute in the court of first instance and still in dispute on appeal was and is not less than twenty thousand rupees, or the judgment, decree or final order involves directly or indirectly some claim or question respecting property of the like amount or value and where the judgment, decree or final order appealed from affirms the decision of the court immediately below, the appeal involves some substantial question of law; or
(b) the Supreme Court gives special leave to appeal.
95. (1) An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment, decree, or final order of a High Court in appeals from a Federated State if the case involves a substantial question of law as to the interpretation of this Constitution or of any law of the Federal Parliament, or of the Legislature of any unit other than the State concerned.
(2) An appeal under this section shall be by way of special case to be stated for the opinion of the Supreme Court by the High Court, and the Supreme Court may require a case to be so stated and may return any case so stated in order that further facts may be stated therein.
96. (1) The Supreme Court shall have such further jurisdiction and with respect to any of the matters in the Federal Legislative List as the Federal Parliament may by Act confer.
(2) The Supreme Court shall have such further jurisdiction and posses with respect to any matter as the Federation and any unit may by special agreement confer if the Federal Parliament by Act provides for the exercise of such jurisdiction and by the Supreme Court.
97. Without prejudice to the powers that may for the time being be vested in this behalf in other courts, the Supreme Court shall have to issue directions or orders in the nature of the writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto, and certiorari, whichever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights guaranteed in Chapter II of Part III of this Constitution.
98. (1) All authorities, civil and judicial, in the territories of the Federation shall act in aid of the Supreme Court.
(2) The Supreme Court shall, as respects the said territories have to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of court which any High Court in the has power to make as respects the territory within its jurisdiction, and any such orders, and any orders of the Supreme Court as to the costs of and incidental to any proceedings therein, shall be enforceable by all courts and authorities in every part of the territories of the Federation as if they were orders duly made by the highest court exercising civil or criminal jurisdiction, as the case may be, in that part.
99. Where in any case the Supreme Court requires a special case to be stated or restated by, or remits a case to, or orders a stay of execution in a case from, a High Court in a Federated State or requires the aid of the civil or judicial authorities in a Federated States the Supreme Court shall cause letters of request in that behalf to be sent to the Ruler of the State, and the Ruler shall cause such communication to be made to the High Court or to any judicial or civil authority as the circumstances may require.
100. The law declared by the Supreme Court shall, so far as applicable, be recognised as binding on all and shall be followed by, all courts within the territories of the Federation.
101. (1) If at any time it appears to the President that a question of law has arisen, or is likely to arise which is of such a nature and such public importance that it is expedient to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court upon it, he may refer the question to that court for consideration and the court may, after such hearing as it thinks fit, report to the President thereon.
(2) No report shall be made under this section save in accordance with an opinion delivered in open court with the concurrence of a majority of the judges present at the hearing of the case, but nothing in this sub-section shall be deemed to prevent a judge who does not concur from delivering a dissenting opinion.
102. (1) The Supreme Court may from time to time, with the approval of the President, make rules of court for regulating generally the practice and procedure of the court, including rules as to the persons practising before the court. as to the time within which appeals to the court are to be entered, as to the costs of and incidental to any proceedings in the court, and as to the fees to be charged in respect of proceedings therein, and in particular may make rules providing for the summary determination of any appeal which appears to the court to be frivolous or vexatious or brought for the purpose of delay.
(2) Rules made under this section may fix the minimum number of judges who are to sit for any purpose, so however that no case shall be decided by less than three judges;
Provided that all references under section 101 shall be heard by the full court.
(3) Subject to the provisions of any rules of court the Chief Justice shall determine what judges are to constitute any division of the court and what judges are to sit for any purpose.
(4) No judgment shall be delivered by the Supreme Court save in open court and with the concurrence of a majority of the judges present at the hearing of the case, but nothing in this sub-section shall be deemed to prevent a judge who does not concur from delivering a dissenting judgment.
103. The Federal Parliament may make provision by Act for conferring upon the Supreme Court such supplemental powers not inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Constitution as may appear to be necessary or desirable for the purpose of enabling the court more effectively to exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon it by or under this Constitution.
104. The administrative expenses of the Supreme Court, including all salaries, allowances, and pensions payable to or in respect of the officers and servants of the court shall be charged upon the revenues of the Federation, and any fees or other moneys taken by the court shall form part of those revenues.
105. References in any provision of this chapter of this Constitution to a High Court in, or exercising jurisdiction in, a Federated State shall be construed as references to any court which the President may, after communication with the Ruler of the State, declare to be a High Court for the purposes of that provision.
Chapter V–Auditor-General of the Federation
106. (1) There shall be an Auditor-General of the Federation, who shall be appointed by the President and shall only be removed from office in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.
(2) The salary, allowances, and other conditions of service of the Auditor-General shall be such as may be determined by Act of the Federal Parliament and until they are so determined shall be as specified in the Second Schedule
Provided that neither the salary of the Auditor-General nor his rights in respect of leave of absence, pension or age of retirement shall be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment.
(3) The Auditor-General shall not be eligible for further office either under the Federation or under the Government of any unit after he has ceased to hold his office.
(4) The salary, allowances, and pension payable to or in respect of an Auditor-General shall be charged on the revenues of the Federation, and the salaries, allowances, and pensions payable to or in respect of members of his staff shall he paid out of those revenues.
107. The Auditor-General shall perform such duties and exercise such powers in relation to the accounts of the Federation and of the provinces as are or may be prescribed by or under any Federal law.
Explanation: In this section the expression “Federal law” includes any existing law for the time being in force in the territories of the Federation.
108. The accounts of the Federation shall be kept in such form as the Auditor-General of the Federation may. with the approval of the President, prescribe and, in so far as the Auditor-General of the Federation may. with the like approval, give any directions with regard to the methods or principles in accordance with which any accounts of Provinces ought to be kept, it shall be the duty of every Provincial Government to cause accounts to be kept accordingly.
109. The reports of the Auditor-General of the Federation relating to the accounts of the Federation shall be submitted to the President who shall cause them to be laid before the Federal Parliament.
PART V–The Governors’ Provinces
Chapter I–The Provinces
110. (1) The following shall be Governors’ Provinces. that is to say, Madras, Bombay, West Bengal, the United Provinces, East Punjab, Bihar, the Central Provinces and Berar, Assam, Orissa, and such other Governors’ Provinces as may be created under this Constitution.
(2) In this Constitution, unless the context otherwise requires, the expression “Province” means a “Governor’s Province” and “Provincial” shall be construed accordingly.
Chapter II–The Provincial Executive
111. In each Province there shall be a Governor who shall be elected in the manner provided in the next succeeding section.
112. The Governor of a Province shall be elected by direct vote of all persons who have the right to vote at a general election for the Legislative Assembly of the Province.
113. The Governor shall hold office for a term of four years from the date on which he enters upon his office:
Provided that:
(a) a Governor may by resignation under his hand addressed to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province resign his office;
(b) a Governor may be removed from office for stated misbehaviour by impeachment in the manner provided in section 118;
(c) a Governor shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.
114. A person who holds, or who has held, office as Governor shall be eligible for re-election to that office once, but only once.
115. (1) No person shall be eligible for election as Governor of a Province unless he:
(a) is a citizen of the Federation,
(b) has completed the age of thirty-five years, and
(c) is qualified for election as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province.
(2) A person shall not be eligible for election as a Governor if he holds any office or position of emolument under the Federal Government or a Provincial Government or under any local or other authority subject to the control of either Government.
116. (1) The Governor shall not be a member either of the Federal Parliament or of the Provincial Legislature and if a member of the Federal Parliament or of the Provincial Legislature be elected Governor, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in the Federal Parliament or the Provincial Legislature, as the case may be, on the date on which he enters upon his office as Governor.
(2) The Governor shall not hold any other office or position of emolument.
(3) The Governor shall have an official residence and they shall be paid to the Governor such emoluments and allowances as may be determined by the Act of the provincial Legislature and until provision in that behalf is so made, the Governor shall receive such emoluments and allowances as are specified in the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(4) The emoluments and allowances of shall not be diminished during his term of office.
117. Every Governor and every person acting as Governor shall enter upon his office after making and subscribing in the presence of the members of the Provincial Legislature a declaration according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
118. (1) When a Governor is to be impeached for stated misbehaviour, the charge shall be preferred by the Legislative Assembly of the Province, but no proposal to prefer such charge shall be entertained by the Assembly except upon a notice of motion in writing signed by not less than thirty members of the Assembly and no such proposal shall be adopted by the Assembly except upon a resolution of the Assembly supported by not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the Assembly.
(2) When a charge has been so preferred the Speaker of the Assembly shall inform the Chairman of the Council of States. Thereupon, the Council of States shall appoint a committee, which may consist of, or include, persons who are not members of the Council, to investigate the charge and the Governor shall have the right to appear and to be represented at such investigation.
(3) If as a result of the investigation a resolution is passed, supported by not less than two-thirds of the total membership of the Council of States declaring that the charge preferred against the Governor has been sustained and that the misbehaviour, the subject of the charge, was such as to render him unfit to continue in office, such resolution shall have the effect of removing the Governor from his office as from the date on which the resolution is to the Speaker of the Assembly.
119. (1) For each Province there shall be a Governor who shall be elected by the members Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Province, or where there is a Legislative Council in the Province, by the members of the Deputy Governor.
(2) If the Governor dies, resigns his office, or is removed from his office or is unable to perform his to absence, illness or any other cause, the Deputy shall act as Governor for the unexpired remainder of the term for which the Governor would have continued in office or until the Governor resumes his duties as the case may be.
(3) The Deputy Governor shall hold office for a term of four years from the date on which he enters upon his office:
Provided that–
(a) a Deputy Governor may, by resignation under his hand addressed to the Governor of the Province, resign his office;
(b) A Deputy Governor may be removed from office for stated misbehaviour by impeachment in the manner provided in section 118 for the removal of the Governor from office;
(c) a Deputy Governor shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.
(4) No person shall be eligible for election as Deputy Governor of a Province unless he
(a) is a citizen of the Federation,
(b) has completed the age of thirty-five years, and
(c) is qualified for election as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province.
(d) A person shall not be eligible for election as Deputy Governor if he holds any office or position of emolument under the Federal Government or a Provincial Government or under any local or other authority subject to the control of either Government.
(6) The Deputy Governor shall not be a member either of the Federal Parliament or of the Provincial Legislature and if a member of the Federal Parliament or of the Provincial Legislature be elected Deputy Governor, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in the Federal Parliament or the Provincial Legislature, as the case may be, on the date on which he enters upon his office as Deputy Governor.
(7) The Deputy Governor shall not, while acting as Governor, hold any other office or position of emolument.
(8) There shall be paid to the Deputy Governor such emoluments and allowances as may be determined by Act of the Provincial Legislature and until provision in that behalf is so made, the Deputy Governor shall receive such emoluments and allowances as are specified in the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(9) The emoluments and allowances of Governor shall not be diminished during his term of office.
120. The Provincial Legislature may make such provisions as it thinks fit for the discharge of the Governor or the Deputy Governor in any contingency not provided for in this chapter.
121. An election to fill the vacancy occurring at the end of the term of office of a Governor or a Deputy Governor shall be held before the date of expiration of the term.
122. (1) All doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with the election of a Governor or Deputy Governor shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court of the Federation whose decision thereon shall be final.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Act of the Provincial Legislature may regulate any matter relating to or connected with the election of a Governor or a Deputy Governor.
123. (1) The executive authority of the province shall be vested in the Governor and may be exercised by him either directly or through persons acting under his authority.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites, or remissions of punishment, or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter with respect to which the Provincial Legislature has power to make laws shall be vested in the Governor.
(3) Nothing in this section shall prevent the conferring Parliament or the Provincial Legislature from functions upon subordinate authorities or be deemed to transfer to the Governor any functions conferred by any existing law on any court, officer or local or other authority.
124. Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive authority of each Province shall extend–
(a) to the matters with respect to which the Legislature of the Province has power to make laws, and
(b) to the exercise of such rights, authority, and jurisdiction as are exercisable under any agreement entered into with any Indian State or group of Indian States under section 189.
125. (1) There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.
(2) If any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter as respects which the Governor is by or under this Constitution required to act in his discretion, the decision of the Governor in his discretion shall be final and the validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion.
126. (1) The Governor’s Ministers shall be chosen and summoned by him and shall hold office during his pleasure.
(2) The Ministers shall before entering upon their offices make a declaration in the presence of the Governor according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
(3) A Minister who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Provincial Legislature shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.
(4) In choosing his Ministers and in his relations them, the Governor shall be generally guided by the instructions set out in the Fifth Schedule to this Constitution, but the validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that it was done otherwise, than in accordance with such instructions.
(5) The salaries of Ministers shall be such as the Provincial Legislature may from time to time by Act determine, and, until the Provincial Legislature so determine, shall be determined by the Governor:
Provided that the salary of a Minister shall not be varied during his term of office.
(6) The question whether any, and if so what, advice was tendered by Ministers to the Governor shall not be inquired into in any court.
(7) The functions of the Governor under this section with respect to the choosing and summoning and the dismissal of Ministers and with respect to the determination of their salaries shall be exercised by him in his discretion.
127. (1) The Governor of each Province shall appoint Advocate of a High Court, to be Advocate-General for the Province.
(2) It shall be the duty of the Advocate-General to give advice to the Provincial Government upon such legal matters and to perform such other duties of a legal character as may, from time to time, be referred or assigned to him by the Governor and to discharge the functions conferred on him by or under this Constitution or any other law for the time being in force.
(3) The Advocate-General shall retire from office upon the resignation of the Prime Minister in the Province, but he may continue in office until his successor is appointed or he is re-appointed.
(4) The Advocate-General shall receive such remuneration as the Governor may determine.
128. (1) All executive action of the Government of a Conduct of Province shall be expressed to be taken in the name of business of the Governor.
(2) Orders and other instruments made and executed in the name of the Governor shall be authenticated in such manner as may be specified in rules to be made by the Governor, and the validity of an order or instrument which is so authenticated shall not be called in question
On the ground that it is not an order or instrument made or executed by the Governor.
(3) (a) The Governor shall make rules for the more convenient transaction of the business of the Provincial Government, and for the allocation among Ministers of the said business in so far as it is not business with respect to which the Governor is by or under this Constitution required to act in his discretion:
Provided that in the Provinces of Bihar, Central Provinces and Berar and Orissa, there shall be a Minister in charge of tribal welfare who may in addition,
(b) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that the allocation of business among Ministers may, where the Province contains distinct regions, be on a regional basis.
Chapter III–The Provincial Legislature
129. (1) There shall for every Province be a Provincial Legislature which shall consist of the Governor an
(a) in the Provinces of …………
two Houses,
(b) in other Provinces, one House.
(2) Where there are two Houses of a Provincial Legislature, one shall be known as the Legislative Council and the other as the Legislative Assembly and where there is only one House, it shall be known as the Legislative Assembly.
130. (1) The Legislative Assembly of each Province shall be composed of members chosen by direct election.
(2) The election shall be on the basis of adult suffrage that is to say, every person who is not less than twenty-one years of age and is not otherwise disqualified under this Constitution or any Act of the Provincial Legislature on the ground of non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt practice shall be entitled to be registered as a voter at such elections.
(3) Seats shall be reserved for:
(a) the Muslim community, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (except the Scheduled Tribes in the autonomous districts of Assam) in the Legilative Assembly of every Province.
(b) the Indian Christian community in the Legislative Assemblies of the Provinces of Madras and Bombay: and
(c) the autonomous districts in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Assam according to the scale prescribed in sub-section (6).
(4) (a) The number of seats reserved for any community in the Legislative Assembly of any Province shall bear as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats in that Assembly as the population of the community in the Province bears to the total population of the Province.
Explanation: All the Scheduled Castes in a province shall be deemed to be a single community for the purposes of this clause and so all the Scheduled Tribes in a Province.
(b) The number of seats reserved for an autonomous district in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Assam shall bear to the total number of seats in that Assembly a proportion not less than the population of the province.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in opinion that the Governor of a Province may, if he is of the Anglo-Indian community is not adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly of the Province, nominate such number of members of the community to the Legislative Assembly as he considers appropriate.
(6) The representation of each territorial constituency in the Legislative Assembly of a Province shall be on the basis of the population of that constituency as ascertained at the last preceding census and shall be on a scale of not more than one representative for every lakh of the population:
Provided that the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly of a Province shall in no case be more than three hundred or less than sixty.
(6A) Upon the completion of each decennial census, the representation of the several territorial constituencies in the Legislative Assembly of each Province shall be readjusted by such authority, in such manner, and with effect from such date as the Provincial Legislature may by Act determine:
Provided that such readjustment shall not affect representation to the Legislative Assembly until the dissolution of the then existing Assembly.
(7) The constituencies for the seats reserved for any autonomous district of the Province of Assam shall not comprise any area outside that district.
(8) No person who is not a member of a Scheduled Tribe in any autonomous district of the Province of Assam shall be eligible for election to the Legislative Assembly of the Province from any constituency of that district except from the constituency comprising the cantonment and municipality of Shillong.
(9) Every Legislative Assembly of every province, unless sooner dissolved. Shall continue for four years from the date appointed for its first meeting and the expiration of the said period of four years shall operate as a dissolution of the Assembly.
131. (1) The total number of members in the Legislative Council of a Province having such a Council shall not exceed twenty-five per centum of the total number of members in the Legislative Assembly of that Province.
(2) Of the total number of members in the Legislative Council of a Province–
(a) one-half shall be chosen from panels of candidates constituted under sub-section (3):
(b) one-third shall be elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote: and
(c) the remainder shall be nominated by the Governor
(3) Before the first general election and, thereafter before each triennial election under sub-section (6)., to the Legislative Council of a Province, six panels of candidates shall be formed, of which one shall contain the names of representatives of Universities in the Province and the remaining five shall respectively contain the names of the persons having knowledge or practical experience of following interests and services, namely:
(a) national language and culture, Literature, art, education and such professional interests as may be defined by Act of the Provincial Legislature;
(b) agriculture and allied interests;
(c) labour;
(d) industry and commerce including banking, finance, accountancy, engineering and architecture:
(e) public administration and social services,
(4) Each panel of candidates constituted under sub-section (3) shall contain at least twice the number to be elected from such panel.
(5) For bye-elections, sub-sections (3) and (4) shall have effect subject to such adaptations and modifications as may be prescribed by Act of the Provincial Legislature.
(6) Every Legislative Council shall be a permanent body not subject to dissolution but, as near as may be
One-third of the members thereof shall retire in every third year in accordance with the provision in that behalf made in relation to the Province under the Sixth Schedule to this Constitution.
132. A person shall not be qualified to be chosen to fill a seat in a Provincial Legislature unless he is in the case of a seat in a Legislative Assembly not less than twenty-five years of age and in the case of a seat in a Legislative Council not less than thirty-five years of age.
133. Until other provision is made under Section 158, all matters relating to or connected with elections to either House of the Provincial Legislature shall be regulated by the relevant provisions of the Sixth Schedule to this Constitution.
134. (1) The House or Houses of each provincial legislature shall be summoned to meet once at least in every year and twelve months shall not intervene between their last sitting in one session and the date appointed for their first sitting in the next session.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Governor may, from time to time–
(a) summon the Houses or either House to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit:
(b) prorogue the House or Houses:
(c) dissolve the Legislative Assembly
(3) The House or Houses shall be summoned to meet for the first session of the Legislature as early as possible after the commencement of this Constitution.
(4) The functions of the Governor under clauses (a) and (c) of sub-section (2) shall be exercised by him in his discretion.
135. (1) The Governor may address the Legislative Assembly or in the case of a Province having a Legislative Council, either House of the Provincial Legislature, or both Houses assembled together and may for that purpose require the attendance of members.
(2) The Governor may send messages to the House or Houses of the Provincial Legislature, whether with respect to a Bill then pending in the Legislature or otherwise, and a House to which any message is so sent shall with all convenient despatch consider any matter required by the message to be taken into consideration.
136. Every Minister and the Advocate-General of a Province shall have the right to speak in, and otherwise take part in the proceedings of, the Legislative Assembly having of the Province or, in the case of a Province Legislative Council, both Houses and any joint sitting of the Houses, and to speak in, and otherwise take part in the proceedings of, any committee of the Legislature of which he may be named a member, but shall not, by virtue of this section, be entitled to vote.
137. (1) Every Provincial Legislative Assembly shall as soon as may be, choose two members of the Assembly to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker thereof and so often as the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker becomes vacant, the Assembly shall choose another member to be Speaker, or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be.
(2) A member holding office as Speaker or Deputy Speaker of an Assembly shall vacate his office if he ceases to be a member of the Assembly, may at any time resign his office by writing under his hand addressed in the case where such member is the Speaker, to the Deputy Speaker or in the case where such member is the Deputy Speaker, to the Speaker, and may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Assembly passed by a majority of all the then members of the Assembly. but no resolution for the purpose of this sub-section shall be moved unless at least fourteen days’ notice has been given of the intention to move the resolution:
Provided that, whenever the Assembly is dissolved, the Speaker shall not vacate his office until immediately before the first meeting of the Assembly after the dissolution.
(3) While the office of Speaker is vacant, the duties of the office shall be performed by the Deputy Speaker or, if the office of Deputy Speaker is also vacant, by such member of the Assembly as the Governor may appoint for the purpose, and during any absence of the Speaker from any sitting of the Assembly the Deputy Speaker or, if he is also absent, such person as may be determined by the rules of procedure of the Assembly, or if no such person is present, such other person as may be determined by the Assembly, shall act as Speaker.
(4) There shall be paid to the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly such salaries as may be respectively fixed by Act of the Provincial Legislature such salaries and, until provision in that behalf is so made, as the Governor may determine.
(5) In the case of a Province having a Legislative Council, the foregoing provisions of this section [other than the proviso to sub-section (2) thereof] shall apply in relation to the Legislative Council as they apply in relation to the Legislative Assembly, with the substitution of the titles “Chairman” and the “Deputy Chairman” for the titles “Speaker” and “Deputy Speaker” respectively, and with the substitution of references to the Council for references to the Assembly.
138. (1) Save as in this Constitution otherwise provided, all questions in a House, or a joint sitting of two Houses, of a Provincial Legislature shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present and voting, other than the Speaker or Chairman, or person acting as such.
(2) The Speaker or Chairman, or person acting as such, shall not vote in the first instance, but shall have and exercise a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes.
(3) A House of a Provincial Legislature shall have power to act notwithstanding any vacancy in the membership thereof, and any proceedings in a Provincial Legislature shall be valid notwithstanding that it is discovered subsequently that some person who was not entitled so to do, sat, or voted or otherwise took part in the proceedings.
(4) If at any time during a meeting of a Provincial Legislative Assembly or a Provincial Legislative Council there is no quorum, it shall be the duty of the Speaker or Chairman or person acting as such either to adjourn the House or to suspend the meeting until there is a quorum.
The quorum shall be ten members or one-sixth of the total number of members of the House, whichever is greater.
Provisions as to Members of Legislatures
139. Every member of a Provincial Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council shall, before taking his seat, make and subscribe before the Governor, or some person appointed by him, a declaration according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
140. (1) No person shall be a member of both Houses of a Provincial Legislature and rules made by the Governor shall provide for the vacation by a person who is chosen a member of both Houses of his seat in one House or the other.
(2) No person shall be a member both of the Federal Parliament and of a Provincial Legislature and if a person is chosen a member both of the Federal Parliament and of a Provincial Legislature, then, at the expiration of such period as may be specified in rules made by the Governor of the Province, that person’s seat in the Provincial Legislature shall become vacant, unless he has previously resigned his seat in the Federal Parliament.
(3) If a member of a House of the Provincial Legislature –
(a) becomes subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in sub-section (1) of the next succeeding section; or
(b) resigns his seat by writing under his hand addressed to the Chairman or the Speaker, as the case may be,
his seat shall thereupon become vacant.
(4) If for a period of sixty days a member of a House of the Provincial Legislature is without permission of the House absent from all meetings thereof, the House may declare his seat vacant:
Provided that in computing the said period of sixty days no account shall be taken of any period during which the House is prorogued or is adjourned for more than four consecutive days.
141. (1) A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of a Provincial Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council–
(a) if he holds any office of profit under the Federation or any unit, other than an office declared by Act of the Provincial Legislature not to disqualify its holder;
(b) if he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court;
(c) if he is an undischarged insolvent;
(d) if, whether before or after the commencement of this Constitution, he has been convicted or has, in proceedings for questioning the validity or regularity of an election, been found to have been guilty, of any offence or corrupt or illegal practice relating to elections which has been specified in the Sixth Schedule to this Constitution or has been declared by Act of the Provincial Legislature to be an offence or practice entailing disqualification for membership of the Legislature, unless the period specified in that behalf in that Schedule or by or under the provisions of that Act has elapsed:
(e) if, whether before or after the commencement of this Constitution, he has been convicted of any other offence and sentenced to transportation or to imprisonment for not less than two years, unless a period of five years or such shorter period as the Governor may allow in any particular case has elapsed since his release;
(f) if, having been nominated as a candidate for the Federal Parliament or any Provincial Legislature or having acted as an election agent of any person so nominated, he has failed to lodge a return of election expenses within the time and in the manner required by or under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule to this Constitution or any law for the time being in force, unless five years have elapsed from the date by which the return ought to have been lodged or the Governor has removed the disqualification:
Provided that a disqualification under clause (f) of this sub-section shall not take effect until the expiration of two months from the date by which the return ought to have been lodged or of such longer period as the Governor may in any particular case allow.
(2) A person shall not be capable of being chosen member of a House of a Provincial Legislature while he is serving a sentence of transportation or of imprisonment for a criminal offence.
(3) When a person who, by virtue of a conviction or a conviction and a sentence, becomes disqualified by virtue of clause (d) or clause (e) of sub-section (1) of this section is at the date of the disqualification a member of a House of the Provincial Legislature, his seat shall, notwithstanding anything in this or the last preceding section, not become vacant by reason of the disqualification until three months have elapsed from the date thereof or, if within those three months an appeal or petition for revision is brought in respect of the conviction or the sentence, until that appeal or petition is disposed of, but during any period during which his membership is preserved by this sub-section, he shall not sit or vote.
(4) For the purposes of this section a person shall not be deemed to hold an office of profit under the Federation or any unit by reason only that he is a Minister either for the Federation or for a Province.
142. If a person sits or votes as a member of a Provincial Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council before he has complied with the requirements of section 139 or when he is not qualified or is disqualified for membership thereof, or when he is prohibited from so doing by the provisions of sub-section (3) of the last preceding section, he shall be liable in respect of each day on which he so sits or votes to a penalty of five hundred rupees to be recovered as a debt due to the Province.
143. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and to rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of the Legislature, there shall be freedom of speech in every Provincial Legislature and no member of the Legislature shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in of anything said or any vote given by him in the Legislature or any committee thereof, and no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of a House of such a Legislature of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.
(2) In other respects, the privileges, and immunities of the members of a House of a Provincial
Legislature shall be such as may from time to time be defined by Act of the Provincial Legislature and, until so defined, shall be such as are enjoyed by the members of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the commencement of this Constitution.
(3) The provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section shall apply in relation to persons who by virtue of this Constitution have the right to speak in, and otherwise take part in the proceedings of a House as they apply in relation to members of the Provincial Legislature.
144. Members of Provincial Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils shall be entitled to receive such salaries and allowances as may from time to time be determined by Act of the Provincial Legislature, and until provision in that respect is so made, allowances at such rates
and upon such conditions as were immediately before the commencement of this Constitution applicable in the case of members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province.
145. (1) Subject to the provisions of section 153 with respect to financial Bills, a Bill may originate in either House of the Legislature of a Province which has a Legislative Council.
(2) A Bill pending in the Legislature of a Province shall not lapse by reason of the prorogation of the House or Houses thereof.
(3) A Bill pending in the Legislative Council of a Province which has not been passed by the Legislative Assembly shall not lapse on a dissolution of the Assembly.
(4) A Bill which is pending in the Legislative Assembly of a Province, or which having been passed by the Legislative Assembly is pending in the Legislative Council, shall lapse on a dissolution of the Assembly.
146. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a Bill shall not be deemed to have been passed by the Houses of the Legislature of a province having a legislative Council, unless it has been agreed to by both Houses, either without amendments or with such amendments only as are agreed to by both Houses.
(2) If a Bill which has been passed by the Legislative Assembly and transmitted to the Legislative Council is not, before the expiration of twelve months from its reception by the Council, presented to the Governor for his assent, the Governor may summon the Houses to meet in a joint sitting for the purpose of deliberating and voting on the Bill:
Provided that if it appears to the Governor that the Bill relates to finance, he may summon the Houses to meet in a joint sitting for the purpose aforesaid notwithstanding that the said period of twelve months has not elapsed.
(3) If at a joint sitting of the two Houses summoned in accordance with the provisions of this section the Bill with such amendments, if any, as are agreed to in joint sitting, is passed by a majority of the total number of members of both Houses present and voting, it shall be deemed for the purposes of this Constitution to have been passed by both Houses:
Provided that at a joint sitting–
(a) unless the Bill has been passed by the Legislative Council with amendments and returned to the Legislative Assembly, no amendments shall be proposed to the Bill other than such amendments if any, as are made necessary by the delay in the passage of the Bill;
(b) if the Bill has been so passed and returned by the Legislative Council, only such amendments as aforesaid shall be proposed in the Bill and such amendments as are relevant to the matters with respect to which the Houses have not agreed, and the decision of the person presiding as to the amendments which are admissible under this sub-section shall be final.
147. A Bill which has been passed by the Provincial Legislature or, in the case of a Province having a legislative Council, has been passed by both Houses of the Provincial Legislature shall be presented to the Governor and the Governor shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President:
Provided that where there is only one House of the Legislature of a Province and the Bill has been passed by that House the Governor may, in his discretion, return the Bill together with a message requesting that the House will reconsider the Bill or any specified provisions thereof and, in particular, will reconsider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as he may recommend in his message and, when a Bill is so returned the House shall reconsider it accordingly and if the Bill is passed again by the House with or without amendments and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold assent therefrom.
148. When a Bill is reserved by a Governor for the consideration of the President, the President shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom:
Provided that the President may direct the Governor to return the Bill to the House or, as the case may be, the Houses of the Provincial Legislature together with such a message as is mentioned in the proviso to the last preceding section and, when a Bill is so returned, the House or Houses shall reconsider it accordingly within a period of six months from the date of receipt of such message and, if it is again passed by them with or without amendments, it shall be presented again to the President for his consideration.
Procedure in Financial Matters
149. (1) The Governor shall in respect of every financial year cause to be laid before the House or Houses of the Legislature of the Province a statement of estimated receipts and expenditure of the Province for that year, in this Part of this Constitution referred to as the “annual financial statement”.
(2) The estimates of expenditure embodied in the annual financial statement shall show separately–
(a) the sums required to meet expenditure in the annual financial statement shall show separately.
(b) the sums required to meet other expenditures proposed to be made from the revenues of the Province;
And shall distinguish expenditure on revenue account from other expenditure.
(3) The following expenditure shall be expenditure charged on the revenue of each province.
(a) the emoluments and allowances of the Governor and other expenditure relating to his office;
(b) debt charges for which the Province is liable including interest, sinking fund charges, and redemption charges, and other expenditure relating to the raising of loans and the service and redemption of debt;
(c) expenditure in respect of the salaries and allowances of judges of any High Court:
(d) any sums required to satisfy any judgement, decree, or award of any court or arbitral tribunal;
(e) any other expenditure declared by this Constitution or an Act of the Provincial Legislature to be so charged.
150. (1) So much of the estimates of expenditure as relates to expenditure charged upon the revenues of a Province shall not be submitted to the vote of the Legislative Assembly, but nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing the discussion in the Legislature of those estimates.
(2) So much of the said estimates as relates to other expenditure shall be submitted, in the form of demands for grants, to the Legislative Assembly, and the Legislative Assembly shall have power to assent, or to refuse to assent, to any demand, or to assent to a demand subject to a reduction of the amount specified therein.
(3) No demand for a grant shall be made except on the recommendation of the Governor.
151. (1) The Governor shall authenticate by his signature a schedule specifying–
(a) the grants made by the Assembly under the last preceding section:
(b) the several sums required to meet the expenditure charged on the revenues of the Province, but not exceeding, in the case of any sum, the sum shown in the statement previously laid before the House or Houses.
(2) The schedule so authenticated shall be laid before the Assembly but shall not be open to discussion or vote in the Legislature.
(3) Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding section. no expenditure from the revenues of the Province shall be deemed to be duly authorised unless it is specified in the schedule so authenticated.
152. If in respect of any financial year further expenditure from the revenues of the Province becomes necessary over and above the expenditure theretofore authorised for that year, the Governor shall cause to be laid before the House or Houses a supplementary statement showing the estimated amount of that expenditure, and the provisions of the preceding sections shall have effect in relation to that statement and that expenditure as they have effect in relation to the annual financial statement and the expenditure mentioned therein.
153. (1) A Bill or amendment making provision—
(a) for imposing or increasing any tax; or
(b) for regulating the borrowing of money or the giving of any guarantee by the Province or for amending the law with respect to any financial obligations undertaken or to be undertaken by the Province;
(c) for declaring any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the revenues of the Province, or for increasing the amount of any such expenditure, shall not be introduced or moved except on the recommendation of the Governor, and a Bill making such provision shall not be introduced in a Legislative Council.
(2) A Bill or amendment shall not be deemed to make provision for any of the purposes aforesaid by reason only that it provides for the imposition of fines or other pecuniary penalties or for the demand and payment of fees for licences or fees for services rendered or by reason that it provides for the imposition or increase of any tax by any local authority or body for local purposes.
(3) A Bill which, if enacted and brought into operation, would involve expenditure from the revenues of a Province shall not be passed by a House of the Provincial Legislature unless the Governor has recommended to that House the consideration of the Bill.
154. (1) A House of a Provincial Legislature may make rules for regulating, subject to the provisions of this Constitution, its procedure, and the conduct of its business.
(2) In a Province having a Legislative Council the Governor, after consultation with the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the Chairman of the Legislative Council, may make rules as to the procedure with respect to joint sittings of, and communications between, the two Houses.
(3) Until rules are made under this section the rules of procedure and standing orders in force immediately before the commencement of this Constitution with respect to the Legislature of the Province shall have effect in relation to the Legislature of that Province subject to such modifications and adaptations as may be made therein by the Chairman of the Legislative Council or the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, as the case may be.
(4) At a joint sitting of the two Houses the Chairman of the Legislative Council, or in his absence such person as may be determined by rules of procedure made under this section, shall preside.
155. (1) In the Legislature of a Province business shall be transacted in language or languages commonly used in that Province or in Hindustani (Hindi or Urdu) or in the English language.
(2) The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly or the Chairman of the Legislative Council shall, whenever he thinks fit, make arrangements for making available in Assembly or the Council, the case may be, a summary of the speech delivered by a member in a language other than that used by the member and such summary shall be included in the record of the proceedings of the House in which the speech has been delivered.
156. No discussion shall take place in a Provincial Legislature with respect to the conduct of any judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court in the discharge of his duties.
Explanation: In this sub-section, the reference to a High Court shall be construed as including a reference to a Court in a Federated State which is a High Court for any of the purposes of Chapter IV of Part IV of this Constitution.
157. (1) The validity of any proceedings in a Provincial Legislature shall not be called in question on the ground of any alleged irregularity of procedure.
(2) No officer or other member of a Provincial Legislature in whom powers are vested by or under this Constitution for regulating procedure or the conduct of business or for maintaining order in the Legislature shall be subject to thc jurisdiction of any court in respect of the exercise by him of those powers.
Elections to the Legislature
158. (1) Provincial Legislature may, from time to time, make provision with respect to all or any of the following matters, that is to say–
(a) the delimitation of territorial constituencies for the purpose of elections to the Provincial Legislature;
(b) the disqualifications for voting at such elections on the ground of non-residence or personal disabilities not based on birth, race, religion or community and the preparation of electoral rolls for such elections;
(c) the qualifications for being elected as a member of either House of the Provincial Legislature;
(d) the filling of casual vacancies in either House of the Provincial Legislature;
(e) the conduct of elections to the Provincial Legislature and the methods of voting thereat;
(f) the expenses of candidates at such elections;
(g) corrupt practices and other offences at or in connection with such elections;
(h) the decision of doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with such elections;
(i) matters ancillary to any such matter as aforesaid.
(2) Any provision under sub-section (1) which has the effect of amending any of the provisions of the Sixth to this Constitution shall be deemed to be, and shall be made in accordance with the procedure prescribed for, an amendment of the Constitution.
Chapter IV-Legislative Powers of the Governor
159. (1) If at any time when the Legislature of a Province is not in session the Governor is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action, he may promulgate such Ordinances as the circumstances appear to him to require:
Provided that the Governor shall not, without instructions from the President, promulgate any such Ordinance if an Act of the Provincial Legislature containing the same provisions would under the provisions of this Constitution have been invalid unless, having been reserved for the consideration of the President, it had received the assent of the President.
(2) An Ordinance promulgated under this section shall have the same force and effect as an Act of the Provincial Legislature assented to by the Governor, but every such Ordinance-
(a) shall be laid before the Provincial Legislature and shall cease to operate at the expiration of weeks from the reassembly of the Legislature or if before the expiration of that period a resolution disapproving it is passed by the Legislative Assembly and agreed to by the Legislative Council, if any. upon the passing of the resolution or, as the ease may be, on the resolution being agreed to by the Council; and
(b) may be withdrawn at any time by the Governor.
(3) If and so far as an Ordinance under this section makes any provision which would not be valid if enacted in an Act of the Provincial Legislature assented to by the Governor, it shall be void:
Provided that, for the purposes of the provisions oi this Constitution relating to the effect of an Act of a Provincial Legislature which is repugnant to an Act of the Federal Parliament or an existing law with respect matter enumerated in the Concurrent Legislative List, an Ordinance promulgated under this section in pursuance of instructions from the President shall be deemed to be an Act of the Provincial Legislature which has been reserved for the consideration of the President and assented to by him.
Chapter V-Provisions in case of Grave Emergencies
160. (1) If at any time the Governor of a Province is satisfied that a grave emergency has arisen which threatens the peace and tranquillity of the Province and that it is not possible to carry on the Government of the Province with the advice of his Ministers in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, he may, by proclamation–
(a) declare that his functions shall, to such extent as may be specified in the proclamations be exercised by him in his discretion;
(b) assume to himself all or any of the functions of the Government and all or any of (lie powers vested in or exercisable by any Provincial body or authority, and any such proclamation may contain such incidental and consequential provisions as may appear to him necessary or desirable for giving effect to the objects of the proclamation including provisions for suspending in whole or in part the operation of any provisions of this Constitution relating to any Provincial body or authority:
Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall authorise the Governor to assume to himself any of the powers vested in or exercisable by a High Court or to suspend, either in whole or in part, the operation of any provision of this Constitution relating to High Courts.
(2) The proclamation shall be forthwith communicated by the Governor to the President of the Federation who may thereupon either revoke the proclamation or take such action as he considers appropriate in exercise of the emergency powers vested in him under section 182.
(3) A proclamation under this section shall cease to operate at the expiration of two weeks unless revoked earlier by the Governor or by the President by public notification.
(4) The functions of the Governor under this section shall be exercised by him in his discretion.
Chapter VI–Scheduled and Tribal Areas
161. In this Constitution–
(a) the expression “scheduled areas” means the areas specified in Parts I to VI of the table appended to paragraph,..of the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution in relation to the Provinces to which those Parts respectively relate;
(b) the expression “tribal areas” means the areas specified in Parts I and II of the table appended to paragraph… of the Eighth Schedule to this Constitution.
162. (1) The provisions of the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution shall apply to the administration and control of the scheduled areas and scheduled tribes in any Province.
(2) The provisions of the Eighth Schedule to this Constitution shall apply to the administration of the tribal areas in the Province of Assam.
Chapter VII– The High Courts in the Provinces
163. (1) The following courts shall in relation to the territories within the Governors’ and Chief Commissioners’ Provinces be deemed to be High Courts for the purposes of this Constitution, that is to say, the High Courts in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad, Patna and Nagpur, the High Court of East Punjab, the Chief Court in Oudh, any other court in any of these Provinces constituted or reconstituted under this chapter as a High Court, and any other comparable court in any of these Provinces which may be declared by an Act of the appropriate Legislature to be a High Court for the purposes of this Constitution:
Provided that if provision is made by the appropriate Legislature for the establishment of a High Court to replace any court or courts mentioned in this sub-section, then, as from the establishment of the new court, this section shall have effect as if the new court were mentioned therein in lieu of the court or courts so replaced.
(2) The provisions of this chapter shall apply to every High Court in the territories of the Federation other than a Federated State.
164. (1) Every High Court shall be a court of record and shall consist of a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President may from time to time deem it necessary to appoint:
Provided that the judges so appointed together with any additional judges appointed by the President in accordance with the following provisions of this chapter shall at no time exceed in number such maximum as the President may by order fix in relation to that court.
(2) Every judge of a High Court in any Province shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal after consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Governor of the Province and in the case of appointment of a judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of the High Court of the Province. and shall hold office until he attains the age of sixty years, or such higher age as may be fixed in this behalf by Act of the Provincial Legislature:
Provided that–
(a) a judge may, by resignation under his hand addressed to the Governor, resign his office;
(b) a judge may be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in sub-section (4);
(c) the office of a judge shall be vacated by his being appointed by the President to be a judge of the Supreme Court or of another High Court.
(3) A person shall not be qualified for appointment as a judge of a High Court unless he is a citizen of the Federation, and-
(a) is a barrister of England or Northern Ireland of at least ten years’ standing or a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland of at least ten years’ standing; or
(b) has for at least five years held a judicial once in any Governor’s or Chief Commissioner’s Province not inferior to that of a subordinate fudge, or judge of a small cause court; or
(c) has for at least ten years been a pleader of any High Court, or of two or more such courts in succession.
Explanation : In computing for the purposes of this subsection the standing of a barrister or a member of the Faculty of Advocates, or the period during which a person has been a pleader, any period during which the person has held judicial office after he became a barrister, a member of the Faculty of Advocates, or a pleader, as the case may be, shall be included and in computing the period during which a person has served as a judge of a High Court or been a pleader of a High Court or held judicial office in any Governor’s or Chief Commissioner’s Province, any period before the commencement of this Constitution during which he has served as a judge or been a pleader, of any High Court in any Governor’s or Chief Commissioner’s Province of India or Pakistan or has held judicial office in such Province, as the case may be, shall be included.
(4) A judge of a High Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed on an address being presented in accordance with the procedure prescribed in this behalf by an Act of the Federal Parliament to the President by both Houses of the Federal Parliament in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
(5) Every person appointed to be a judge of a High Court shall. before he enters upon his office, make, and subscribe before the Governor or some person appointed by him a declaration according to the form set out in that behalf in the Third Schedule to this Constitution.
165. The judges of the several High Courts shall be entitled to such salaries and allowances, including allowances for expenses in respect of equipment and travelling upon appointment, and to such rights in of leave and pension, as may from time to time be determined by or under Act of the Provincial Legislature, and until they are so determined, shall be entitled to such salaries. allowances, and rights in respect of leave and pension as are specified in the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
Provided that neither the salary of a judge, nor his rights in respect of leave of absence or pension, shall be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment.
166. (1) If the office of Chief Justice of a High Court becomes vacant, if any is by of absence, or for any other reason, unable to perform the duties of his office, those duties shall until some person appointed by the President to the vacant office has entered on the duties thereof, or until the Chief Justice has resumed his duties, as the case may be, be performed by such one of the other judges of the court as the President may appoint for the purpose.
(2) If the of any other judge of a High Court becomes vacant, or if any such judge is appointed to act temporarily as a Chief Justice, or is by reason of absence, or for any other reason, unable to perform the duties of his office, the President may appoint a person duly qualified for appointment as a judge to act as a judge of that court, and the person so appointed shall, unless the President thinks fit to revoke his appointment, be deemed to be a judge of that court until some person appointed by the President to the vacant office has entered on the duties thereof or until the permanent judge has resumed his duties.
(3) If by reason of any temporary increase in the business of any High Court or by reason of arrears of work in any such court, it appears to the President that the number of the judges of the court should be for the time being increased, the President may, subject to the foregoing provisions of this chapter with respect to the maximum number of judges, appoint persons duly qualified for appointment as judges to be additional judges of the court for such period not exceeding two years as he may specify.
167. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Constitution and to any provisions of any Act of the appropriate Legislature enacted by virtue of powers conferred on that Legislature by this Constitution, the jurisdiction of and the law administered in, any existing High Court, and the respective powers of the judges thereof in relation to the administration of justice in the court, including any power to make rules of court and to regulate the sittings of the court and of members thereof sitting alone or in division courts, shall be the same as immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.
(2) Every High Court shall have power to issue any prerogative writs or directions by way of substituted remedies therefor throughout the areas subject to its appellate jurisdiction.
168. (1) Every High Court shall have superintendence over all courts in the territories of the Federation for the time being subject to its appellate jurisdiction and may do any of the following things, that is to say–
(a) call for returns;
(b) direct the transfer of any suit or appeal from any such court to any other court of equal or superior jurisdiction;
(c) make and issue general rules and prescribe forms for regulating the practice and proceedings of such courts;
(d) prescribe forms in which books, entries and accounts shall be kept by the officers of any such courts; and
(e) settle tables of fees to be allowed to the sheriffs, attorneys and all clerks and officers of courts:
Provided that such rules, forms, and tables shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of any law for the time being in force and shall require the previous approval of the Governor.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed as giving to the High Court any jurisdiction to question any judgment of any inferior court which is not otherwise subject to appeal or revision.
169. (1) If on an application made in accordance with the provisions of this section a High Court is satisfied that a case pending in an inferior court, being a case which the High Court has power to transfer to itself for trial, involves or is likely to involve the question of the validity of any Federal or Provincial Act, it shall exercise that power.
(2) An application for the purposes of this section shall not be made, except in relation to a Federal Act, by the Advocate-General for the Federation and, in relation to a Provincial Act, by the Advocate-General for the Federation or the Advocate-General for the Province.
170. The administrative expenses of a High Court, including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of the officers and servants of the court and the salaries and allowances of the judges of the court shall be charged upon the revenues of the Province, and any fees or other moneys taken by the court shall form part of those revenues.
171. (1) The Legislature of a Province may by Act constitute a High Court for the Province or any part thereof re-constitute in like manner any existing High Court for that Province or for any part thereof, or, where there are two High Courts in that Province, amalgamate those courts.
(2) Where any court is re-constituted, or two courts are amalgamated, as aforesaid, the Act of the Provincial Legislature shall provide for the continuance in their respective offices of such of the existing judges, officers and servants of the court or courts, as may be deemed necessary for the carrying on before the re-constituted court or the new court of all pending matters, and may contain such other provision as may appear to be necessary by reason of the re-constitution or amalgamation.
172. (1) The Federal Parliament may, if satisfied that an agreement in that behalf has been made between the Governments concerned, extend the jurisdiction of a High Court in any Province to any area within the territories of the Federation not forming part of that Province, and the High Court shall thereupon have the same jurisdiction in relation to that area as it has in relation to any other area in relation to which it exercises jurisdiction.
(2) Nothing in this section affects the provisions of any law or letters patent in force immediately before the commencement of this Constitution empowering any High Court to exercise jurisdiction in relation to more than one Province or in relation to a Province and an area not forming part of any Province.
(3) Where a High Court exercises jurisdiction in relation to any area or areas outside the Province in which it has its principal seat, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed–
(a) as empowering the Legislature of the Province in which the court has its principal seat to increase, restrict or abolish that jurisdiction, or
(b) as preventing the Legislature having power to make laws in that behalf for any such area from passing such laws with respect to the jurisdiction of the court in relation to that area as it would be competent to pass if the principal seat of the court were in that area.
173. (1) Any judge appointed before the commencement of this Constitution to any High Court shall continue in office and shall be deemed to have been appointed under this part of this Constitution, but shall not by virtue of this Constitution be required to relinquish his office at any earlier age than he would have been required so to do, if this Constitution had not been passed,
(2) Where a High Court exercises jurisdiction in relation to more than one Province or in relation to a Province and an area not forming part of a Province, references in this chapter to the Governor in relation to the judges of a High Court and references to the revenues of the Province shall be construed as references to the Governor and the revenues of the Province in which the court has its principal seat, and the reference to the approval by the Governor of rules, forms and tables for subordinate courts shall be construed as a reference to the approval thereof by the Governor of the Province in which the subordinate court is situate, or, if it is situate in an area not forming part of a Province, by the President.
Chapter IX– Auditor General of the Province
174. (1) The Legislature of a Province may by Act provide for the appointment of an Auditor-General for the Province and when such provision has been made an Auditor-General for that Province may be appointed by the Governor in his discretion and the Auditor-General so appointed shall only be removed from office in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the High Court of the Province:
Provided that no appointment of an Auditor-General in a Province shall be made until the expiration least three years from the date of the publication after assent of the Act of the Provincial Legislature by which provision is made for the appointment of an Auditor General of that Province.
(2) Every such Act shall prescribe the conditions of service of the Auditor-General and the duties which shall be performed and the powers which shall be exercised by the Auditor-General in relation to the accounts of the Province and shall declare the salary, allowances and pension payable to or in respect of the Auditor-General to be charged on the revenues of the Province.
(3) The Auditor-General of the Province shall be eligible for appointment as Auditor-General of the Federation but not for any other appointment either under the Federation or under the Government of a unit after he has ceased to hold office.
(4) The salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of members of the staff of the Auditor-General shall be paid out of the revenues of the Province.
(5) Nothing in this section shall derogate from the power of the Auditor-General of the Federation to give such directions in respect to the accounts of the Provinces as are mentioned in section 108 of this Constitution.
175. The reports of the Auditor-General of the Federation or of the Province, as the case may be relating to the accounts of a Province shall be submitted to the Governor of the Province, who shall cause them to be laid before the Provincial Legislature.
*PART VI–The Chief Commissioner’s Provinces
176. (1) The following shall be the Chief Commissioners’ Provinces, that is to say, the heretofore existing Chief Commissioners’ Provinces of Delhi, Aimer-Merwara, Coorg and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the area known Panth Piploda, and such other Chief Commissioner’s Provinces as may be created under this Constitution.
(2) A Chief Commissioner’s Province shall be administered by the President acting, to such extent as he thinks
*Note : This Part will require revision after the Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces have submitted their report.
177. The President may make regulations for the and good government of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and any regulations so made may repeal or amend any Act of the Federal Parliament or any existing law which is for the time being applicable to the Province and, when promulgated by the President, shall have the same force and effect an Act of the Federal Parliament which applies to the Province.
178. Until other provision is made by or under any Act of the Federal Parliament, the constitution, powers and functions of the Coorg Legislative Council, and the arrangements with respect to revenues collected in Coorg and expenses in respect of Coorg shall remain unchanged.
PART VII–Distribution of Legislative Powers
179. Subject to the provisions of this Constitution the Federal Parliament may make laws, including laws having extra-territorial operation, for the whole or any part of the territories of the Federation and a Provincial Legislature may make laws for the Province or for any part thereof.
180. (1) Notwithstanding anything in the two next succeeding sub-sections, the Federal Parliament has, and a Provincial Legislature has not, power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List I in the Ninth Schedule to this Constitution (hereinafter called the “Federal Legislative List”).
(2) Notwithstanding anything in the next succeeding sub-section, the Federal Parliament, and, subject to the preceding sub-section, a Provincial Legislature also, have power io make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List Ill in the said Schedule (hereinafter called the ‘Concurrent Legislative List”).
(3) Subject to the two preceding sub-sections, the Provincial Legislature has, and the Federal Parliament has not, power to make laws for a Province or any part thereof with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List Il in the said Schedule (hereinafter called the “Provincial Legislative List”).
(4) The Federal Parliament has power to make laws with respect to matters enumerated in the Provincial Legislative except for a Province or any part thereof.
181. Notwithstanding anything contained in section 180, the power of the Federal Parliament to make laws for a Federated State or a group of Federated States shall be subject to the terms of any agreement entered into in that behalf by that State or group of States with the Federation and the limitations contained therein.
182. (1) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding sections of this Part, the Federal Parliament shall have power–
(a) if the President has declared by proclamation that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India is threatened. whether by war or internal disturbance, then, to make laws for any Province or any part thereof, and
(b) if the President has, on receipt of a proclamation issued by the Governor of a Province under section 160, declared by proclamation under this subsection that a grave emergency exists whereby the peace and tranquillity of that Province is threatened, then, to make laws for that province or any part thereof, with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the Provincial Legislative List.
(2) Nothing in this section shall restrict the power of a Provincial Legislature to make any law which under this Constitution it has power to make, but if any provision of a Provincial law is repugnant to any provision of a Federal law which the Federal Parliament has under this section power to make, the Federal law, whether passed before or after the Provincial law shall prevail, and the Provincial law shall to the extent of the repugnancy, but so long only as the Federal law continues to have effect, be inoperative.
(3) A proclamation issued under clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (1) (in this Constitution referred to as “a Proclamation of Emergency”)–
(a) may be revoked by a subsequent proclamation;
(b) shall be laid before each House of the Federal Parliament;
(c) shall cease to operate at the expiration of tax months, unless before the expiration of that period it has been approved by resolutions of both Houses of the Federal Parliament.
(4) A law made by the Federal Parliament which the Parliament would not but for the issue of a Proclamation of Extent of power to legislate for States.
183. (1) If it appears to the Legislature or Legislatures of one or more units to be desirable that any of the matters with respect to which the Federal Parliament has no more power to make laws for the unit or units except where a Proclamation of Emergency has been issued under sub section (1) of section 182 should be regulated in such unit or units by Act of the Federal Parliament and a resolution or resolutions to that effect is or are passed by the House, or where there are two Houses, by both the Houses of the Legislature or Legislatures of the unit or units, it Constitution shall be lawful for the Federal Parliament to pass an Act for regulating that matter accordingly, and any Act so passed shall apply to such unit or units or to any other unit by which it is adopted afterwards by a resolution passed in that behalf by the House or, where there are two Houses, by each of the Houses of the Legislature of that unit.
(2) Any Act so passed by the Federal Parliament may, as respects any unit to which it applies, be amended, or repealed by an Act of the Legislature of that unit.
184. (1) If any provision of a Provincial law is repugnant to any provision of a Federal law which the Federal Parliament is competent to enact, or to any provision of any existing law with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent Legislative List, then, subject to the provisions of this section, the Federal law, whether passed before or after the Provincial law, or, as the case may be, the existing law, shall prevail and the Provincial law shall, to the extent of the repugnancy be void.
(2) Where a Provincial law with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent Legislative List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier Federal law or any existing law with respect to that matter, then, if the Provincial law, having been reserved for the consideration of the President. has received the assent of the President, the Provincial law shall in that Province prevail, but nevertheless Federal Parliament may at any time enact further legislation with respect to the same matter.
(3) If any provision of a law of a Federated State is repugnant to a Federal law which extends to that State. the Federal law, whether passed before or after the law of the State, shall prevail and the law of the State shall. to the extent of the repugnancy, be void.
185. No Act of the Federal Parliament or a Provincial Legislature and no provision in any such Act shall be invalid by reason only that some recommendation was not given, if assent to that Act was given–
(a) where the recommendation required was that of the Governor, either by the Governor or by the President;
(b) where the recommendation required was that of the President, by the President
PART VIII–Administrative relations between federation and units
General
186. The executive authority of every unit shall be so exercised as to secure respect for the laws of the Federal Parliament and any existing laws which apply in that unit and the executive authority of the Federation shall extend to the giving of such directions to a unit as may appear to the Federal Government to be necessary for this purpose.
187. (1) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution. the President may, with the consent of the Government of a unit, entrust either conditionally or unconditionally to that Government or to its officers’ functions in relation to any matter to which the executive authority of the Federation extends.
(2) An Act of the Federal Parliament which applies in any unit may, notwithstanding that it relates to a matter with respect to which the Legislature of the unit has no power to make laws, confer powers and impose duties, or authorise the conferring of powers and the imposition of duties, upon the unit or officers and authorities thereof.
(3) Where by virtue of this section powers and duties have been conferred or imposed upon a unit or officers or authorities thereof, there shall be paid by the Federation to the unit such sum as may be agreed or, in default of agreement as may be determined by an arbitrator appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in of any extra costs of administration incurred by the unit in connection with the exercise of those powers and duties.
188. (1) The Federation may by agreement with any Federated State, but subject to the provisions of this Constitution in regard to the relationship between the Federation and the Federated State, undertake any executive legislative or judicial functions vested in that State.
(2) The Federation may also enter into such an agreement with an Indian State which is not a Federated State, but every such agreement shall be subject to and governed by any Act relating to the exercise of foreign jurisdiction by the Federal Parliament.
(3) If an agreement entered into with an Indian State under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) provides for any matter with respect to which provision has been already made in an agreement entered into with a Federated State by a Province under section 189, then the latter agreement shall, in so far as it provides for such matter, be deemed to be revoked and of no effect on and from the date of conclusion of the former agreement.
(4) On an agreement under sub-section (1) being concluded with an Indian State–
(a) the executive authority of the Federation shall extend to any matter specified in that behalf in such agreement;
(b) the Federal Parliament shall have power to make laws with to any matter specified in that behalf in such agreement; and
(c) the Supreme Court of the Federation shall, subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 96, have jurisdiction with to any matter specified in that behalf in such agreement.
189. (1) It shall be competent for a Province with the previous sanction of the President to undertake, by an agreement made in that behalf with any Indian State, any legislative, executive, or judicial functions vested in that State if such agreement relates to a matter which is enumerated in the Provincial or the Concurrent Legislative List.
(2) On an agreement under sub-section (1) being concluded with an Indian State-
(a) the executive authority of the Province shall extend to any matter specified in that behalf in such agreement;
(b) the Provincial Legislature shall have power to make laws with respect to any matter specified in that behalf in such agreement; and
(c) the High Court and other appropriate courts in the Province shall have jurisdiction with respect to any matter specified in that behalf in such agreement.
190. The executive authority of every unit shall be so exercised as not to impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive authority of the Federation and the executive authority of the Federation shall extend to the giving of such directions to a unit as may appear to the Federal Government to be necessary for that purpose.
191. Where a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation whereby the President has declared that the security of India or the peace and tranquillity of any Province is threatened, then, notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution–
(a) the executive authority of the Federation shall extend to the giving of directions to any unit or to the Province concerned, as the case may be, as to the manner in which the executive authority thereof is to be exercised;
(b) any power of the Federal Parliament to make laws with respect to any matter shall include power to make laws conferring powers and imposing duties. or authorising the conferring of powers and the imposition of duties, upon the Federation or officers and authorities of the Federation as respects that matter.
Broadcasting
192. (1) The Federal Government shall not unreasonably refuse to entrust to the Government of any unit such functions with respect to broadcasting as may be necessary to enable that Government–
(a) to construct and use transmitters in the unit;
(b) to regulate, and impose fees in respect of, the construction and use of transmitters and the use of receiving apparatus in the unit:
Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall be construed as requiring the Federal Government to entrust to the Government of any such unit any control over the of transmitters constructed or maintained by the Federal Government or by persons authorised by the Federal Government, or over the use of receiving apparatus by persons so authorised.
(2) Any functions so entrusted to a Government of a unit shall be exercised subject to such conditions as may be imposed by the Federal Government, including, notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, any conditions with respect to finance, but it shall not be lawful for the Federal Government so to impose any conditions regulating the matter broadcast by, or by authority of, the Government of the unit.
(3) Any Federal laws which may be passed with respect to broadcasting shall be such as to secure that effect can be given to the foregoing provisions of this section.
(4) If any question arises under this section whether any conditions imposed on the Government of any such unit are lawfully imposed, or whether any refusal by the Federal Government to entrust functions is unreasonable, the question shall be determined by the President acting as an arbitrator.
Co-operation between units
193. If at any time it appears to the President that the public interests would be served by the establishment of a Council charged with the duty of–
(a) inquiring into and advising upon disputes which may have arisen between units:
(b) investigating and discussing subjects in which some or all of the units, or the Federation and one or more units have a common interest; or
(c) making recommendations upon any such subject and, in particular, recommendations for the better co-ordination of policy and action with respect to that subject, il shall be lawful for the President by Order to establish such a Council and to define the nature of the duties to be performed by it and its organisation and procedure.
An order establishing any such Council may make provisions for representatives of any part of the territories of the Federation to participate in the work of the Council.
194. (1) The President may, at any time, and shall on the expiry of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, by Order, institute a commission io report on the administration of the scheduled arras and the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes in the Provinces. The Order may define the composition, powers and procedure of the commission and may contain such incidental or ancillary provisions as the President may consider necessary or desirable.
(2) The executive authority of the Federation shall extend to the giving of directions to a Province as to the drawing up and execution of schemes specified in the direction to be essential for the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes in the Province.
PART IX–Finance, Property, Contracts, and Suits
Chapter I–Finance
Distribution of revenues between the Federation and units
194-A. In this Part, the expression “unit” does not include a Chief Commissioner’s Province.
195. Subject to the following provisions of this chapter with respect to the assignment of the whole or part of the net proceeds of certain taxes and duties to units, the expression “revenues of the Federation” includes all revenues and public moneys raised or received by the Federation and the expression “revenues of the Province” includes all revenues and public moneys raised or received by a Province.
196. Duties in respect of succession to property other than agricultural land, estate duty in respect of property succession duties, stamp other than agricultural land, such stamp duties are duties, mentioned in the Federal Legislative List, terminal taxes, and taxes on goods or passengers carried by railway, or air, and fares on railway fares and freights, shall be levied and collected by the Federation, but the net proceeds in any financial year of any such duty or tax, except in so far as those proceeds represent proceeds attributed to Chief Commissioners’ Provinces, shall not form part of the revenues of the Federation, but shall be assigned to the units within which that duty or tax is levied in that year, and shall be distributed among the units in accordance with such principles of distribution as may be formulated by Act of the Federal Parliament :
Provided that the Federal Parliament may at any time increase any of the said duties or tares by a surcharge for Federal purposes and the whole proceeds of any such surcharge shall form part of the revenues of the Federation.
197. (1) Taxes on income other than agriculture shall be levied and collected by the Federation, but a prescribed percentage of the net proceeds in any financial year of any such tax, except in so far as those proceeds represent proceeds attributable to Chief Commissioners’ Provinces or to taxes payable in respect of Federal emoluments, shall not form part of the revenues of the Federation, but shall be assigned to the units within which that tax is leviable in that year, and shall be distributed among the units in such manner and from such time as may be prescribed:
Provided that the Federal Parliament may at any time increase the said taxes by a surcharge for Federal purposes and the whole proceeds of any such surcharge shall form part of the revenues of the Federation.
For the purposes of this sub-section, in each financial year such percentage as may be prescribed, of so much of the net proceeds of taxes on income as does not represent the net proceeds of taxes payable in respect of Federal emoluments shall be deemed to represent proceeds distributable to Chief Commissioner’s Provinces.
(2) In this section–
“Taxes on income” does not include a tax;
“prescribed” means prescribed by Act of the Federal Parliament; and
“Federal emolument”, includes all emoluments and pensions payable out of the revenues of the Federation in respect of which income-tax is chargeable.
198. (1) No duties on salt shall be levied by the Federation.
(2) Federal duties of excise and export duties shall be levied and collected by the Federation, but, if an Act of the Federal Parliament so provides, there shall be paid out of the revenues of the Federation to the units to which the Act imposing the duly extends, sums equivalent to the whole or any part of the net proceeds of that duty, and those sums shall he distributed among the units in accordance with such principles of distribution as may be formulated by the Act.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding subsection, such proportion the Federal Parliament may by Act determine, of the net proceeds in each year of any export duty on jute or jute products shall not form part of the revenues of the Federation but shall be assigned to the units in which jute is grown in proportion to the respective amounts of jute grown therein.
199. Such sums as may be prescribed by Act of the Federal Parliament shall be charged on the revenues of the Federation in each year as grants-in-aid of the revenues of such units as the Parliament may determine to in need of assistance, and different sums may be prescribed for different units:
Provided that there shall be paid out of the revenues of the Federation as grants-in-aid of the revenues of a Province such capital and recurring sums as may be necessary to enable that Province to meet the costs of such schemes of development as may be undertaken by the Province with the approval of the Federal Government for the purpose of promoting the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes in the Province or raising the level of administration of the scheduled areas in the Province to that of the administration of the rest of the Province:
Provided further that there shall be paid out of the revenues of the Federation as grants-in-aid of the revenues of the Province of Assam sums, capital and recurring, equivalent to–
(a) the average excess of expenditure over the revenues during the three years immediately preceding the date of commencement of this Constitution in respect of the administration of the areas specified in Part I of the table appended to paragraph 19 of the Eighth Schedule to this Constitution; and
(b) the costs of such schemes of development as may be undertaken by that Province with the approval of the Federal Government for the purpose of raising the level of administration of the said areas to that of the administration of the rest of the Province.
200. (1) Notwithstanding anything in section 180 of this Constitution, no law of a unit relating to tares for the benefit of the unit or of a municipality, district board, local board or other local authority therein in respect of professions, trades, callings or employments shall be invalid on the ground that it relates to a tax on income.
(2) The total amount payable in respect of any one person to the unit or to any one municipality, district board, other local authority in the unit by way of taxes on professions. trades, callings, and employments shall not exceed fifty rupees per annum:
Provided that, if in the financial year immediately preceding the commencement of this Constitution there was in force in any unit or any such municipality, board or authority a tax on professions, trades, callings, or employments the rate, or the maximum rate, of which exceeded fifty rupees per annum, the preceding provisions of this sub-section shall, unless for the time being provision to the contrary is made by a law of the Federal Parliament, have effect in relation to that unit, municipality, board or authority as if for the reference to fifty rupees per annum there were substituted a reference to that rate or maximum rate or such lower rate, if any (being a rate greater than fifty rupees per annum) as may for the time being be fixed by an Act of the Federal Parliament; and any law of the Federal Parliament made for any of the purposes of this proviso may be made either generally or in relation to any specified units, municipalities, boards or authorities.
(3) The fact that the Legislature of a unit has power to make laws as aforesaid with respect to tares on professions, trades, callings, and employments shall not be construed as limiting, in relation to professions, trades, callings and employments, the generality of the entry in the Federal Legislative List relating to taxes on income.
201. Any taxes, duties, cesses, or fees which, immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, were being lawfully levied by the Government of any unit or by any municipality or other local authority or body for the purposes of the unit, municipality, district or other local area may, notwithstanding that those taxes, duties, cesses, or fees are mentioned in the Federal Legislative List, continue to be levied and to be applied to the same purposes until provision to the contrary is made by the Federal Parliament.
202. (1) In the foregoing provisions of this chapter “net proceeds” means in relation to any tax or duty the proceeds thereof reduced by the cost of collection, and for the purposes of those provisions the net proceeds of any tax or duty, or of any part of any tax or duty, in or attributable to any area shall be ascertained and certified by the Auditor General of the Federation, whose certificate shall be final.
(2) Subject as aforesaid, and to any other express provision in this chapter, an Act of the Federal Parliament may, in any case where under this Part of this Constitution the proceeds of any duty or tax, or may be, assigned to any unit, provide for the manner in which the proceeds are to be calculated, for the time from or at which and the manner in which any payments are to be made, for the making of adjustments between one financial year and another, and for any other incidental or ancillary matters.
Miscellaneous Financial Provisions
203. The Federation or a unit may make grants for any purpose, notwithstanding that the purpose is not one with of Federal respect to which the Federal Parliament or the Legislature the unit, as the case may be, may make laws.
204. Rules may be made by the President and by the Governor of a Province for the purpose of securing that all moneys received on account of the revenues of the Federation or of the Province, as the case may be, shall, with such exceptions, if any, as may be specified in the rules, be paid into the public account of the Federation or of the Province, and the rules so made may prescribe, or authorise some person to prescribe, the procedure to be followed in respect of the payment to moneys into the said account, the withdrawal of moneys therefrom, the custody of moneys therein, and any other matters connected with or ancillary to the matters aforesaid.
205. The property of the Federation shall, save in so far as any Federal law may otherwise provide, be from all taxes imposed by, or by any authority within, a unit:
Provided that, until any Federal law otherwise provides, any property of the Federation which was immediately before the commencement of this Constitution liable, treated as liable, to any such tax shall, so long as that tar continues, continue to be liable, or to be treated as liable, thereto.
206. Save in so far as any Federal law may otherwise provide, no law of a unit shall impose, or authorise the imposition of, a tar on the consumption or sale of electricity (whether produced by a Government or other person) which is–
(a) consumed by the Federal Government, or sold to the Federal Government for consumption by that Government; or
(b) consumed in the construction, maintenance or operation of a Federal railway by the Federal Government or a railway company operating that railway, sold to that Government or any such railway company for consumption in the construction, maintenance or operation of a Federal railway;
and any such law imposing, or authorising the imposition of, a tax on the sale of electricity shall secure that the price of electricity sold to the Federal Government for consumption by that Government, or to the Federal Government or any such railway company as aforesaid for consumption in the construction, maintenance, or operation of a Federal railway, shall be less by the amount of the tax than the price charged to other consumers of a substantial quantity of electricity.
207. Subject as hereinafter provided; the Government of a unit shall not be liable to Federal taxation in respect of lands or buildings situate within the territories of the Federation or income accruing, arising or received within the Act
Provided that–
(a) where a trade or business of any kind is carried on by or on behalf of the Government of a unit, nothing in this sub-section shall exempt that Government from any Federal taxation or the levy of a sum in lieu of such taxation in respect of that trade or business or any operations connected therewith or any income arising in connection therewith or any property occupied for the purposes thereof;
(b) nothing in this sub-section shall exempt the Ruler of an Indian State from any Federal taxation in respect of any lands, buildings or income being his personal property or personal income.
208. Where under the provisions of this Constitution the expenses of any court or commission, or the pension payable to or in respect of a person who has served before the commencement of this Constitution under the Crown in India, are charged on the revenues of the Federation or the revenues of a Province, then if–
(a) in the case of a charge on the revenues of the Federation, the court or commission serves any of the separate needs of a Province, or the person has served wholly or in part in connection with the affairs of a Province; or
(b) in the case of a charge on the revenues of a Province, the court or commission serves any of the separate needs of the Federation or another Province, or the person has served wholly or in part in connection with the affairs of the Federation or another Province, there shall be charged on and paid out of the revenues of the Province or, as the case may be, the revenues of the Federation or of the other Province, such contribution in respect of the expenses or pension as may be agreed, or as may in default of agreement be determined by an arbitrator to be appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Chapter II–Borrowing
209. The executive authority of the Federation extends borrowing by to borrowing upon the security of the revenues of the Federal Government.
210. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Borrowing by executive authority of a Province extends to borrowing upon the security of the revenues of the Province within such limits, if any, as may from time to time be fixed by Act of the Provincial Legislature, and to the giving of guarantees within such limits, if any, as may be so fixed.
(2) The Federation may, subject to such conditions, if any, as it may think fit to impose, make loans to units or so long as any limits fixed under the last preceding section are not exceeded, give guarantees in respect of loans raised by any unit and any sums required for the purpose of making such loans shall be charged on the revenues of the Federation.
(3) A Province may not without the consent OF the Federation raise any loan if there is still outstanding any part of a loan which has been made to the Province by the Federation or its predecessor-Government or in respect of which a guarantee has been given by the Federation or by its predecessor-Government.
A consent under this sub-section may be granted subject to such conditions, if any, as the Federation may think fit to impose.
Chapter III– Property, contracts, liabilities, and suits
211. As from the commencement of this Constitution, the Government of the Federation and the Government each Governor’s Province included in the territories of the Federation shall respectively be the successors of the of the dominion of India and of the corresponding Governor’s Province as regards all property, assets, debts and liabilities subject to any adjustment made or to be made by reason of the creation before the commencement of this Constitution of the Dominion of Pakistan of, the Provinces of West Bengal, East Bengal, West Punjab and East Punjab.
212. (1) The executive authority of the Federation and of each Province shall extend, subject to any Act of the appropriate Legislature, to the grant, sale, disposition or mortgage of any property held for the purpose Of the Government of the Federation or of the Province, as the case may be, and to the purchase or acquisition of property for those purposes respectively, and to the making of contracts.
(2) All property acquired for the purposes of the Federation of a Province shall vest in the Federation or in the Province, as the case may be.
213. (1) All contracts made in the exercise of the executive authority of the Federation or of a Province shall be expressed to be made by the President, or by the Governor of the Province, as the case may be, and all such contracts and all assurances of property made in the exercise of that authority shall be executed on behalf of the President or the Governor by such persons and in such manner as he may direct or authorise.
(2) Neither the President, nor the Governor of a Province, shall be personally liable in respect of any contract or assurance made or executed for the purposes of this Constitution, or for the purposes of any enactment relating to the Government of India heretofore in force, nor shall any person making or executing any such contract or assurance on behalf of any of them be personally liable in respect thereof.
214. (1) The Federation may sue or be sued by the name the Federation of India and the Government of a Province may sue or be sued by the name of the Province and, may, subject to any provisions which may be made by Act of the Federal Parliament or a Provincial legislature enacted by virtue of the powers conferred by this Constitution, sue or be sued in relation to their respective affairs in the like cases as the Dominion of India and the corresponding Province might have sued or been sued if this Constitution had not been enacted.
(2) If at the date of commencement of this Constitution any legal proceedings are pending to which the Dominion of India is a party, the Federation shall be deemed to be substituted for the Dominion in those proceedings.
PART X–Services
Chapter I– Defence Services
215. (1) All appointments to services and posts connected with defence and the grant of commissions in any Naval, Military or Air Force within the territories of the Federation shall be regulated by or under Act of the Federal Parliament and until provision in that behalf is so made shall be regulated by rules made by the President.
(2) The conditions of service of persons in services. or serving in posts, connected with defence within the territories Of the Federation shall be regulated under Federal law.
Explanation: In this sub-section, the expression “Federal law” includes any existing law as in force for the time being.
Chapter II– Civil Services
216. (1) The President may, by Order, create such All- India Services as he may consider necessary.
(2) The recruitment and the conditions of service of persons appointed to any such service shall be regulated by or under Act of the Federal Parliament and until provisions in that behalf is so made shall be regulated by rules made by the President.
217. Subject to the provisions of section 216–
(1) appointments to all civil services and civil posts shall be made–
(a) in the case of services of the Federation and posts in connection with the affairs of the Federation, by the President or such person as he may direct; and
(b) in the case of services of a Province and posts in connection with the affairs of a Province, by the Governor or such person as he may direct.
(2) The conditions of service of persons serving in a civil capacity shall be such as may be prescribed–
(a) in the case of persons serving in connection with the affairs of the Federation, by rules made by the President or by some person or persons authorised by the President; and
(b) in the case of persons serving in connection with the affairs of a Province, by rules made by the Governor of the province or by some person or persons authorised by the Governor;
Provided that it shall not be necessary to make rules regulating the conditions of service of persons employed temporarily on the terms that their employment may be terminated at one month’s notice or less, and nothing in this sub-section shall be construed as requiring the rules regulating the conditions of service of any class of persons to extend to any matter which appears to the rule-making authority to be a matter not suitable for regulation by rule in the case of that class.
(3) Acts of the appropriate Legislature may notwithstanding anything contained in this section regulate the conditions of service of persons serving under the Federation or a Province in a civil capacity and any rules made under this section shall have effect subject to the provisions of any such Act.
218. Until other provision is made under the appropriate provisions of this Part of this Constitution, any rules which were in force immediately before the commencement of this Constitution and were applicable to any civil service or civil post which has continued to exist after the commencement of this Constitution as a service or post under the Federation or a Province shall continue in force so far as consistent with the provisions of this Constitution, and shall be deemed to be rules made under the appropriate provisions of this Constitution.
Chapter III–Public Service Commissions
219. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section there shall be a Public Service Commission for the Federation and a Public Service Commission for each Province.
(2) Two or more Provinces may agree–
(a) that there shall be one Public Service Commission for that group of Provinces; or
(b) that the public service Commission for one of the Provinces shall serve the needs of all the Provinces, and any such agreement may contain such incidental and consequential provisions as may appear necessary or desirable for giving effect to the purposes of the agreement and shall, in the case of an agreement that there shall be one Commission for a group of Provinces, specify by what Governor Governors the functions which are under this Part of this Constitution to be discharged by the Governor of a Province are to be discharged.
(3) The Public Service Commission for the Federation if requested so to do by the Governor of a Province may, with the approval of the President, agree to serve all or any of the needs of the Province.
(4) References in this Constitution to the Federal Public Service Commission or a Provincial Public Service Commission shall unless the context otherwise requires. be construed as references to the Commission serving the needs of the Federation or, as the case may be, the Province as respects the particular matter in question.
220. (1) The Chairman and other members of a Public Service Commission shall be appointed, in the case of the Commissions and staff of Federal Commission, by the President, and in the case of a Provincial Commission, by the Governor of the Province in his discretion:
Provided that at least one-half of the members of every Public Service Commission shall be persons who at the dates of their respective appointments have held office for at least ten years either under the Federation or under a Province and in computing the said period of ten years any period before the commencement of this Constitution during which a person has held office under the Crown shall be included.
(2) In the case of the Federal Commission, the President and, in the case of a Provincial Commission, the Governor of the Province in his discretion, may by regulations–
(a) determine the number of members of the Commission, their tenure of once and their conditions of service; and
(b) make provision with respect to the number of members of the staff of the Commission and their conditions of service.
(3) On ceasing to hold office–
(a) the Chairman of the Federal Commission shall be ineligible for further employment either under the Federation or under a Province;
(b) the Chairman of a Provincial Commission shall be eligible for appointment as the Chairman to a member of the Federal Commission or as the Chairman Of another Provincial Commission, but not for any other employment either under the Federation or under a Province;
(c) no other member of the Federal or any Provincial Commission shall be eligible for any other appointment either under the Federation or under a Province without the approval, in the case of an appointment in connection with the affairs of a Province, of the Governor of the Province and, in the case of any other appointment, of the President.
221. (1) It shall be the duty of the Federal and the Provincial Public Service Commissions to conduct examinations for appointments to the services of the Federation and the services of the Province respectively.
(2) It shall also be the duty of the Federal Public Service Commission, if requested by any two or more Provinces so to do, to assist those Provinces in framing and operating schemes of joint recruitment tor any services for which candidates possessing special qualifications are required.
(3) The President as respects the All India Services and also as respects other services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Federation, and the Governor as respects other services and posts in connection with the affairs of a Province, may make regulations specifying the matters in which either generally, or in any particular class of case or in any particular circumstances, it shall not be necessary for a Public Service Commission to be consulted but, subject to regulations so made and to Federal the Commission on all matters or, relating as the to case methods may to recruitment Commission shall be consulted–
(a) on all matters relating to methods of recruitment to civil services for civil posts;
(b) on principles to be followed in making appointments to civil services and posts and in making promotions and transfers from one service to another and on the suitability of candidates for such appointments, promotions or transfers;
(c) on all disciplinary matters affecting a serving under the Federation or a Province in a civil
capacity, including memorials or petitions relating to such matters;
(d) on any claim by or in respect of a person who is serving or has served under the Federation or a Province or under the Crown in a civil capacity that any costs incurred by him in defending legal proceedings instituted against him in resrect ot acts done or purporting to be done in the execution of his duty should be paid out of the revenues of the Federation or, as the case may be, the Province;
(e) on any claim for the award of a pension in respect of injuries sustained by a person while serving under the Federation or a Province or under the Crown in a civil capacity, and any question as to the amount of any such award.
And it shall be the duty of a Public Service Commission to advise on any matter so referred to them and on any other matter which the President or, as the case may be, the Governor may refer to them.
(4) Nothing in this section shall require a Public Service Commission to be consulted as respects the manner in which appointments and posts are to be allocated as between the various communities in the Federation or a Province.
222. Subject to the provisions of this section, an Act of the Federal Parliament or of the Provincial Legislature may provide for the exercise of additional functions by the Federal Public Service Commission, or, as the case may be, by the Provincial Public Service Commission;
Provided that where the Act is a Provincial Act, it shall be a term of such Act that the functions conferred by it shall not be exercisable in relation to any person who is not a member of one of the services of the Province except with the consent of the President.
223. The expenses of the Federal or a Provincial Public Service Commission, including any salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of the members or staff of the Commission, shall be charged on the revenues of the Federation or, as the case may be, the Province.
PART XI–Elections
224. The Superintendence, direction, and control of all elections to the Federal Parliament and to the Provincial Legislatures and all elections to the offices of President, Vice-President, Governor and Deputy Governor held under this Constitution including the appointment of election tribunals for the decision of doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with elections to the Federal Parliament or to the Provincial Legislatures shall be vested in a Commission to be appointed by the President.
225. Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Federal Parliament may, from time to time, make provision with respect to all matters relating to or connected with elections to either House of the Federal Parliament including the delimitation of constituencies.
PART XII–Miscellaneous
226. Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding section the claims of all minority communities shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Federation or a Province.
227. (1) During the first two years after the commencement of this Constitution, appointments of members of the Anglo-Indian community to posts in the railways, customs, postal and telegraph services of the Federation shall be made on the same basis as immediately before such commencement.
During every succeeding period of two years, the number of posts reserved for the members of the said community in the said services shall, as nearly as possible, be less by ten per cent than the numbers so reserved during the immediately preceding period of two years:
Provided that at the end of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution all such reservations shall cease.
(2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall bar the appointment of members of the Anglo-Indian community to posts other than, or in addition to, those reserved for the community under that sub-section, if such members are found qualified for appointment on merit in comparison with the members of other communities.
228. During the first three financial years after the commencement of this Constitution, the same grants, if any, shall be made by the Federation and by each province for the benefit of the Anglo-Indian community in grants for the respect of education as were made in the financial year immediately before such commencement.
During every succeeding period of three years the grants may be less by ten per cent than those for the immediately preceding period of three years:
Provided that at the end of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, such grants, to the extent to which they are a special concession to the Anglo-Indian community, shall cease:
Provided further that no educational institution shall be entitled to receive any grant under this section unless at least forty per cent of the annual admissions therein are made available to members of communities other than the Anglo-Indian community.
229. (1) There shall be a Special Officer for minorities for the Federation who shall be appointed by the President, and a Special Officer for minorities for each Province who shall be appointed by the Governor of the Province.
(2) It shall be the duty of the Special Officer for the Federation to investigate to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for minorities under this Constitution in connection with the affairs of the Federation and to report to the President upon the working of the safeguards at such intervals as the President may direct, and the President shall cause all such reports to be laid before the Federal Parliament.
(3) It shall be the duty of this Special Officer for a Province to investigate all maters relating to the safeguards provided for minorities under this Constitution in connection with the affairs of the Province and to report to the Governor of the Province upon the working of the safeguards at such intervals as the Governor may direct, and the Governor shall cause all such reports to be laid before the Provincial Legislature.
230. (1) The President may, by Order, appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territories of the Federation and the difficulties under which they labour and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Federation or any unit to remove such difficulties and to improve their condition and as to the grants that should be given for the purpose by the Federation or any unit and the conditions subject to which such grants should be given, and the order appointing such Commission shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission.
(2) A Commission so appointed shall investigate the matters referred to them and present to the President a report setting out the facts as found by them and making such recommendations as they think proper.
231. (1) In this Constitution unless the context otherwise requires. the following expressions have the meanings of India hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say–
(a) “agricultural income” means agricultural income as defined for the purposes of the enactments relating to Indian income-tax;
(b) “an Anglo-Indian” means a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of descent but who is domiciled within the territories of the Federation and is or was born within those territories of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for only;
(c) “an Indian Christian” means a person who professes any form of the Christian religion and is not a European or an Anglo-Indian;
(d) “borrow” includes the raising of money by the grant of annuities and “loan” shall be construed accordingly;
(e) “Chief Justice” includes in relation to a High Court a Chief Judge;
(f) “corporation tax” means any tax on income, so far as that tax is payable by companies and is a tax in the case of which the following conditions are fulfilled:
(i) that it is not chargeable in respect of agricultural income;
(ii) that no deduction in res1Ect of the tax paid by companies is, by any enactments which may apply to the tax, authorised to be made from dividends payable by the companies to individuals;
(iii) that no provision exists for taking the tax so paid into account in computing for the purposes of Indian income-tax the total income of individuals receiving such dividends, or in computing the Indian income-tax payable by, or refundable to, such individuals:
(g) “debt” includes any liability in respect of any obligation to repay capital sums by way of annuities and any liability under any guarantee, and ”debt charges” shall be construed accordingly;
(h) “existing law” means any law, ordinance, order, bye-law, rule or regulation passed or made before the commencement of this Constitution by any legislature, authority or having v”wet to make such a law, ordinance, order, bye-law, rule or regulation and in force in any territcries of the Federation immediately before such commencement but does not include any Act of Parliament or any Order in Council made under any such Act;
(i) “goods” includes all materials. commodities, and articles;
(j) “guarantee” includes any obligation undertaken before the commencement of this Constitution to make payments in the event of the profits of an undertaking falling short of a specified amount’,
(k) “pension” means a pension, whether contributory or not, of any kind whatsoever payable to or in respect of any person, and includes retired pay so payable, a gratuity so payable and any sum or sums so payable by way of the return, with or without interest thereon or any other addition thereto, of subscriptions to a provident fund;
(l) “pleader” includes advocate;
(m) “Provincial Act” and “Provincial law” mean, subject to the provisions of this section, an Act passed or law made by a Provincial Legislature under this Constitution;
(n) “public notification” means a notification in the Gazette of India. or. as the case may be, the official Gazette of a Province;
(o) “securities” includes stock,
(p) “taxation” includes the imposition of any tax or impost, whether general or local or special, and “tax” shall be construed accordingly;
(q) “tax on income” includes a tax in the nature of an excess profits tax;
(r) “railway” includes a tramway not wholly within a municipal area;
(s) “federal railway” does not include an Indian State railway but, save as aforesaid, includes any railway not being a minor railway;
(t) “Indian State railway” means a railway owned by a State and either operated by the State, or operated on behalf of the State otherwise than in accordance with the State by or on the Federal Government, or any company operating a federal railway;
(u) “minor railway” means a railway which is wholly one unit and do not form a continuous communication with a federal railway, whether of the same gauge or not;
(uu) “Scheduled tribes” means the tribes or communities specified in Parts to VIII the Tenth
Schedule to this Constitution in relation to the to which those Parts respectively relate;
(v) “unit” means a Governor’s Province, a Chief Commissioner’s Province, or a Federated State, or, where two more States have acceded to the Federation as a group, such group.
(2) For the purposes of this Constitution the castes, races, or tribes or parts of or groups within castes, races specified in Parts to IX of the Eleventh Schedule Constitution shall in the Provinces to which those respectively relate, be deemed to be scheduled castes as far as regards members thereof resident in the localities in relation to them respectively in those Parts of that Schedule:
Provided that–
(a) no Indian Christian shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste;
(b) in West Bengal no person who professes Buddhism or a tribal religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.
(3) Unless the context otherwise requires the General Clauses Act 1897 (X of 1897) shall apply for the interpretation this Constitution.
(4) Any reference in this Constitution to Federal Acts or laws, or Provincial Acts or laws, or to Acts or laws of the Federal Parliament a Provincial Legislature shall be construed as including a reference to an Ordinance made by the President cr. as the case may be, to an Ordinance made by a Governor,
Part XIII– Amendment of the Constitution
232. An amendment of the Constitution that be initiated for the introduction of a Bill for the purpose in either House of the Federal Parliament, and when the Bill is passed in each House by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting, it shall be presented to the President for his assent and upon such assent being given, the Bill containing such amendment shall come into operation:
Provided that if such amendment seeks to make any change in–
(a) the Federal Legislative List;
(b) the representation of units in the Federal Parliament; or
(c) the members of the Supreme Court,
this amendment shall also require to be ratified by the legislatures of units representing a majority of the population of all the units of the Federation in which units representing at least one-third of the population of the Federated States are included:
Provided further that the provisions of this Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for the Muslim community, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Indian Christian community or the Sikh community either in the Federal Parliament or in any Provincial Legislature shall not be amended within the period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution and shall cease to have effect on the expiration of that period unless continued in operation by an amendment of the Constitution in the manner provided in this section.
Explanation (1): Where a unit consists of a group of States. the proposed amendment shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be ratified by the Legislature of the unit if it is ratified by the majority of the Legislatures of the States in the group.
Explanation (2): In this section, the expression “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding decennial census.
PART XIV–Transitional Provisions
233. (1) Subject to the other provisions of this Constitution, all the laws in force in the territories of the Federation immediately before the commencement of this Constitution shall continue in force therein until altered or repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority.
(2) The President may, by Order, provide that, as from such date as may be specified in the Order, any law in force in the Governors’ Provinces or Chief Commissioners’ Provinces or in any part of such Provinces shall, until repealed or amended by a competent authority, have effect subject to such adaptations and modifications as appear to him to be necessary or expedient for bringing the provisions of that law into accord with the provisions of this Constitution
234. (1) Until the Supreme Court is duly constituted under this Constitution, the Federal Court of the Dominion India constituted under section 200 of the Government of India Act, 1935, as adapted under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, shall exercise all the functions conferred by the provisions of this Constitution on the Supreme Court.
(2) On and from the date of commencement of this Constitution the jurisdiction of His Majesty in Council to entertain and dispose of appeals and petitions from or in respect any decree or order of any court within the territories of the Federation including the jurisdiction in respect of criminal matters exercisable by His Majesty by virtue of His Majesty’s prerogative shall cease, and all appeals and the proceedings pending in His Majesty’s Council on the said date shall be transferred to, and disposed of, by the Supreme Court.
(3) Further Provisions may be made by Federal law to give effect to the provisions of this section.
235. Every person who, immediately before the date of commencement of this Constitution, was in the service of the Crown within the territories of the Federation shall continue in service until the Government of the Federation or of the unit, as the case may be, otherwise directs.
Explanation: For the purposes of this section, a Minister for the Dominion of India or for a Province shall not be deemed to have been in the service of the Crown.
236. (1) Until both Houses of the Federal Parliament have been duly constituted and summoned to meet for the first session under this Constitution, the Constituent Assembly of the Dominion of India shall itself exercise all the powers and perform all the duties conferred by the provisions of the Constitution on the Federal Parliament.
Explanation: For the purposes of this sub-section, the Constituent Assembly of the Dominion of India includes members chosen to fill casual vacancies in that Assembly in accordance with rules made in that behalf by the Assembly but shall not include any members representing any territory not included in the First Schedule to this Constitution.
(2) Such Person as the Constituent Assembly of the Dominion of India shall have elected in this behalf shall be the provisional President of the Federation until a President has been elected in accordance with the provisions contained in Chapter I of Part IV of this Constitution and has entered upon his office.
237. (1) Until the House or Houses of the Legislature of each Province has or have been duly constituted and summoned to meet for the first session under the provisions of this Constitution, the House or Houses of the Legislature of that Province functioning immediately before the commencement of this Constitution shall exercise the powers and perform the duties conferred by the provisions of this Constitution on the House or Houses of the Provincial Legislature.
(2) Any person holding office as Governor in any Province immediately before the commencement of this Constitution shall after such commencement be the provisional Governor of such Province until a new Governor has been elected in accordance with the provisions of Chapter II of Part V of this Constitution and has entered upon his office.
237-A. For the purpose of removing any difficulties, particularly in relation to the transition from the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, to the provisions of this Constitution, the President may, by Order, direct that this Constitution shall, during such period as may be specified in the Order, have effect subject to such adaptations, whether by way of variation, addition, or repeal, as he may deem to be necessary or expedient. No such Order shall be made after the first meeting of the Federal Parliament duly constituted under Chapter II of Part IV of this Constitution.
238. Until the expiration of three years from the commencement of this Constitution, the Federal Parliament may, notwithstanding anything contained in Part XIII, by Act amend this Constitution whether by way of variation, addition, or repeal.
239. This Constitution shall come into force on…
240. The Indian Independence Act, 1947 and the Government of India Act, 1935 including the India (Central Government and Legislature) Act, 1946 and all other enactments amending of supplementing the Government of India Act, 1935 are hereby repealed.