From that point of view, I would have much rather liked that all that we say and provide is the first clause which is of course the same as in the Government of India Act : “No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.” If we had done this, then all the various things that we have included in the article as it has been placed before the House by the Honourable the Prime Minister would have been unnecessary. The article has perforce to be an involved one; there have got to be ‘save’ and ‘except’; there have got to be “notwithstanding” this and that; “nothing in this will apply to that” and “subject to what is stated” etc. I do not think we are in a position to judge of the future so quickly and in such definite terms as to lay down a certain formula which will be, without doubt, of benefit to the whole country. I would therefore urge that all that we should say is that Parliament may by law determine property rights from time to time.
