Mr. Vice-President, Sir, the right conferred by article 15 is the most fundamental of the Fundamental Rights in this Chapter, because it is the right which relates to life and personal liberty without which all other rights will be meaningless. Therefore, it is necessary that in defining this right, we must make it clear and explicit as to what it is that we want to confer and not put in restrictions upon the exercise of that right which make it useless or nugatory. I therefore support the amendment which says that the words `without due process of law’ should be substituted for the words `except in accordance with the procedure established by law.’ Sir, the words ‘without due process of law’ have been taken from the American Constitution and they have come to acquire a particular connotation. That connotation is that in reviewing legislation, the court will have the power to see not only that the procedure is followed, namely, that the warrant is in accordance with law or that the signature and the seal are there, but it has also the power to see that the substantive provisions of law are fair and just and not unreasonable or oppressive or capricious or arbitrary. That means that the judiciary is given power to review legislation. In America that kind of power which has been given to the judiciary undoubtedly led to an amount of conservative outlook on the part of the judiciary and to uncertainly in legislation. But our article is in two respects entirely different from the article in the American Constitution. In the American Constitution, the words are used in connection with life, liberty and property. In this article we have omitted the word ‘property’, because on account of the use of this word in the American Constitution, there has been a good deal of litigation and uncertainty. There has been practically no litigation and no uncertainty as regards the interpretation of the words “due process of law” as applied to `life’ and ‘liberty’.
