Yes, but is it obligatory on Parliament to make such a law? And even if it does make the law, where is it prescribed that the maximum must be fixed and even if it is fixed, is any period being suggested here? Must not this Assembly suggest to Parliament for its guidance that such and such a period shall be the maximum period of detention which must be provided in the law which Parliament may make? You are again leaving the whole thing to the good sense of Parliament. If so, why make an unnecessary show of this article 15A by saying that you are conceding certain fundamental rights, whereas, as a matter of fact, you are suggesting the extent to which the legislature can freely go to impose limitations on personal liberty? So far as detenus are concerned, they are given no protection in this chapter and I submit that this is very hard and strikes at the very root of fundamental rights and personal liberty. The person detained may be kept in detention without the sanction of the magistrate and for any length of time and without even reason for detention being told to him. There shall be only one review of his case and there shall be no periodical review. I submit, if nothing else is conceded by the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar, at least this one thing should be conceded, namely, that the cases of such persons shall be reviewed periodically after every three months, or it may be even after six months: otherwise, once a person is detained, and once the Advisory Board agrees to his detention for a period longer than three months, the fate of that person is virtually sealed and he is doomed. He is absolutely at the mercy of the Executive. After six months, after nine months and even after twelve months the conditions in the country may change. Something more may come to light and those changed circumstances, those new things must be placed before the Advisory Board, and the Advisory Board, in view of the changed conditions and the fresh facts coming to light and being placed before them, should be in a position to advise the Government whether continued detention for another six, nine or twelve months is necessary. This is a very simple and reasonable thing. Let not this last ray of hope which may be created in the detenus be taken away altogether. We who have had the good fortune, I should certainly say, of being detained during the various satyagraha movements, know how many of us anxiously looked forward to the expiry of the period of six months, where after we used to think and hope that our cases would be reviewed by the authorities and that they might consider it advisable and necessary to release some of us. Let us not forget these feelings and the experiences which we have bad, and let us not forget that though today we are in power, who knows tomorrow someone else may be in power and may be in the position in which the present detenus are! So, whosoever may be detained, let him have these fundamental rights. Without even these rights being guaranteed here it is a huge joke to ask us to accept this article as even guaranteeing fundamental rights, whereas in fact it works more the other way about.
