It is for the future, Sir. But we could have provided otherwise. It would have been so easy. We will see from the Constitution that in some cases we have provided for exemption for certain purposes and for certain States. We could have done so, in the Constitution itself. When we apply article 365 and article 371, I would like to ask one question about the position of the Legislatures in the States. It is well known maxim of constitutional law that a power conferred upon Legislature shall not be delegated to any other authority. (Panama refining Co-vs-Ryan). It is also another well accepted principle that a delegated authority cannot delegate its own authority to another body or person. In the case of the United States of America, after the Constitution was drafted, it was sent to all the States for their ratification. In Australia also they did the same thing. Even in South Africa the colonies had to ratify the Constitution before it was finally passed in the Parliament. So also we sent the Draft Constitution to the Indian States, to be ratified by the States Legislatures. We have three States which have Legislatures – Travancore-Cochin, Madhya Bharat and Mysore. The Draft Constitution was sent to these States for ratification. All these States unanimously recommended certain amendments but none of those amendments were even considered in this Constituent Assembly at the time of the consideration of the Constitution. Therefore I ask : Was ratification necessary? In America they believe that the power of the Legislature cannot be delegated to another body and the delegated authority cannot delegate its own authority to another body. So they got ratification by the Constituent States. If the States legislatures could not delegate their power to their representatives here, it was necessary that the Constitution should be ratified by the States Legislature. If that be the case, in ratifying the Constitution they have suggested amendments and some of the amendments were suggested from all the States. It was a qualified acceptance. I regret to say that at the consideration stage not even one of those amendments were even considered in the Constituent Assembly. Hence the question remains whether the States have validly ratified the Constitution.
