Now, Sir, I come to the question which has been raised substantially by the amendment of Prof. K. T. Shah. His amendment, if I understood him correctly, is fundamentally different from the whole scheme as has been adopted in this Draft Constitution. Prof. K. T. Shah uses the word “Chief Executive and the Head of the State”. I have no doubt about it that what he means by the introduction of these words is to introduce the American presidential form of executive and not the Parliamentary form of executive which is contained in this Draft Constitution. If my friend Prof. Shah were to turn to the report of the Union Constitution Committee, he will see that the Drafting Committee has followed the proposals set out in the report of that Committee. The report of that Committee says that while the President is to be the head of the executive, he is to be guided by a Council of Ministers whose advice shall be binding upon him in all actions that he is supposed to take under the power given to him by the Constitution. He is not to be the absolute supreme head, uncontrolled by the advice of anybody, and that is the Parliamentary form of government. In the United States. Undoubtedly, there are various Secretaries of State in charge of the various departments of the administration of the United States, and they carry on the administration, and I have no doubt about it, that they can also and do as a matter of fact, tender advice to the President with regard to matters arising under their administration. All the same, in theory, the President is not bound to accept the advice of the Secretaries of State. That is why the United States President is described as the Chief Head of the Executive. We have not adopted that system. We have adopted the Parliamentary system, and therefore my submission at this stage is that this matter which has been raised by Prof. K. T. Shah cannot really be disposed of unless we first dispose of article 61 of the Draft Constitution which makes it obligatory upon the President to act upon the advice of the Council of Ministers. Do we want to say it or not, that the President shall be bound by the advice of his Ministers? That is the whole question. If we decide that the President shall not be bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers, then, of course, it would be possible for this House to accept the amendment of Prof. K. T. Shah. But my submission is that at this stage, the matter is absolutely premature. If we accept the deletion of article 61 then I agree that we would be in a position to make such consequential changes as to bring it into line with the suggestion of Prof. Shah. But at this moment, I am quite certain that it is premature and should not be considered.
