It was under these circumstances that the Constituent Assembly came to be a body, not only for framing the Constitution but also to serve the purpose, of the Federal or Central Legislature. Our own Government thought that it was necessary, and therefore they passed the Provisional Constitution Order by which sub-clause (2) of section 68 of the Government of India Act was deleted, because if it existed, then naturally double membership could not have continued we would have been required to exercise any option and if we had not exercised that option we would have continued to be members of the Central legislature and we would have lost our seats in the provincial legislature. It was thought then that in the interest of the administration both at the Centre and in the provinces it was not desirable that members of the provincial legislature should take part here in the work of the Central Assembly at the cost of their work which they had primarily to do as members of the provincial Assembly. Hence our leader issued a sort of letter of convention by which members of the provincial legislatures were asked not to take part ordinarily in the working of the Central legislature and I must say, so far as I know (I do not hold any office in the Constituent Assembly) that letter of convention has been to a very large extent adhered to by members of the provincial legislatures, because they were all expected to be responsible people and I think they have acted in that manner.
