Sir, during the Round Table Conference, the Rulers of the States insisted that they should be given greater representation both in the Assembly and in the Council of State than their population warranted. In other words, they asked for weightage in both the Houses of the Central legislature and it was therefore laid down in the Government of India Act, 1935, that the representatives of the States shall be forty per cent of the total representatives in the Council of State whether elected or nominated and that in the Assembly, the number of representatives of the States should be one-third of the total number of elected representatives. The Union Powers Committee recommended that the proportion of the representatives of the States mentioned in Part III of the First Schedule should be 40 percent of the total number of elected representatives in the Council of States. In other words, in this respect it approved of the provision contained in the Government of India Act, 1935, but it departed from that Act in regard to the representation of the States in the Legislative Assembly. The Draft Constitution follows the recommendations of the Union Powers Committee which were accepted by the House last year. Dr. Ambedkar has now moved that no percentage should be fixed for the representatives of the States specified in Part III of the First Schedule but that the seats allocated to the States should be as laid down in a schedule to be attached to the Draft Constitution. Now, Sir, when the Government of India Act, 1935, was passed by the British Parliament, the situation was very different from what it is now. The States were then not prepared to join the Federation except at a price. Apart from this, it suited the British Government to give weightage to the States. In the new order, however, the position of the States formerly known as the Indian States, has completely changed. Their representatives in this House themselves want that their position should be assimilated to that of the provinces. There is no reason therefore why the weightage given to the States in the Government of India Act, 1935, should be continued any longer.
