Mr. Vice-President, Sir, I wish to speak a few words on this article. As was observed by Mr. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, I would say that this is the most important article of the whole Constitution and we have to take care to see that the rights conferred by this article are not watered down or in any way modified by other articles or even by the other clauses of this every article. Now, Sir, recent experience after we gained independence has taught us that we have to be much more careful in safeguarding the individual liberties and the rights of the citizens now than when we were ruled by the foreigners. I must say that the recent behaviour of certain provincial governments has taught us that it is very necessary to take careful measures to see that they are not allowed to behave in the manner they have behaved. I am referring to the way in which the sacred rights and liberties of the person were being dealt with by certain provincial governments under the cloak of the powers that they are said to possess. Very often, Sir, it has become the fashion with these Provincial Governments to say: “Well, some state of emergency has arisen and therefore, in the public interest, we shall utilise the powers conferred by the Public Safety Act and we shall have to curtail the liberties of so many people and put them in jail”. And this is done without those people knowing on what grounds they are arrested, what is the sin that they have committed against the State or against the peace of the country, in order to deserve the curtailment of their liberty in this irresponsible fashion; and they are kept in that state of mind for weeks and months, without even being told what the ground is on which they are arrested and detained, even though the Government is bound to furnish them with the reasons for their arrest and detention, under the provisions of the Act under which the Government proposed to arrest them.
