I submit, Sir, that as regards Mr. Chaudhari’s point, about the unsound mind, what the Assembly has passed is certain disqualifications, which include ‘any law made by the legislature ….. relating to non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt or illegal practice etc.’. Now, it is obvious that an unsound man is normally considered unfit to exercise this privilege. But, who is to determine it? The law. When the law is made, well and good. At the present moment we have no such law. What is stated here is this. If a competent court says so, that must be accepted. I do not quite follow Mr. Chaudhari’s argument; it is not easy to hear from this side what a person says from the other side. From what I gather, is every person to go to a court for a declaration that a man is of unsound mind? I do not understand why anybody should go there at all. A few persons of unsound mind may get into the rolls. But, many persons of unsound mind who are not declared to be of unsound mind come in and not only vote, but do many other functions too. We cannot simply help it. What we want to guard against is this. A person should not be ruled out on account of some prejudice or wrong decision. There must be some guide to the enumerator. The decision of a court surely must be recognised by the man who has to prepare the electoral roll. For the rest, if a further law is passed by the Constituent Assembly, I should think that would be good. But, it is quite impossible not to accept the decision of a court. It is not necessary, I submit, for you at this stage to say, subject to any other rule that may be made. If this House passes any other rules, the enumerator will follow them. This is a preliminary electoral roll. You cannot go into too great specifications and details. These rolls will, no doubt, be checked later or in accordance with the rules and laws passed by this Assembly or by the provincial Assemblies as the case may be. But, in the first instance, too many details cannot be gone into. You must remember that the man who is going to prepare them is an ordinary type of enumerator and he will have to go by his own lights which may not be very great. Afterwards, they would be checked by the other people concerned. So that, first of all, the disqualifications mentioned in the Constitutions as it is being passed will, of course, be given effect to. If you like, you may leave out, “If he is not a citizen of India”, because it is redundant. But, the second thing is desirable, because, there is no test of unsoundness. There may be a closer test. Anyhow, this is a wide enough test: that if a competent court declares a man to be of unsound mind, we may accept that. If the court does not say so, we may accept that he is sound or unsound. If we pass any further rules, they will be followed.
