Then my friend Mr. Santhanam, made a comment on the fact that paragraph 10 of the Report says that it will also of course be open to any Indian State Unit to confer by special agreement, additional jurisdiction upon Supreme Court. In this paragraph the Committee was dealing with a particular kind of jurisdiction which has to be exercised in respect of Indian States, cases involving the interpretation of a law of the Union and cases involving the interpretation of a law of a Unit other than the State concerned, and the States were not prepared to go further than that. Apart from the court being with a jurisdiction to deal with the constitutional validity of law, it is provided that it will also be open to an Indian State to confer additional jurisdiction by special agreement. That does not derogate from the plenary powers of the legislature. At any rate that is not the intention or the object of the Committee. Two things are necessary. So far as the States are concerned, they must agree to supplemental jurisdiction other than the jurisdiction indicated in paragraph 9. There is of course the other necessary pre-requisite, viz., that the Federal Legislature must be willing to clothe the Supreme Court with the jurisdiction. If that is the intention, there is absolutely no necessity for the amendment. The object is not and cannot be to give independent power to a State, without reference to the legislature, to invest any additional jurisdiction. Therefore, when the constitution is framed, such jurisdiction as may be conferred by the Union Legislature with the consent of the States in matters in which the States are interested, will have to be specially provided for. This is my submission to you, Sir, with regard to the necessity for additional jurisdiction. That is exactly the object of the two clauses of the report.
