I say not only the people but even our Governments have to learn it. To prove this I will cite only two instances. The House will remember that in Calcutta – in Bengal – the High Court was seized of a case and had appointed a full Bench to decide as to what is the effect of the word reasonable’ in an enactment dealing with Government’s power to arrest and detain. The Bench was to meet only next day but the Government came out with an Ordinance laying down that the word ‘reasonable’ shall be held to have been deleted. No doubt, as the High Court remarked in that case ‘His Excellency the Governor of the Province’ was fully within his rights to enact an Ordinance but it was against constitutional morality.’ The second instance which I would place before the House is that the head of an autonomous institution – I mean the Aligarh University – was only the other day asked to quit and give place to another man although that head had the confidence of the University Court and of the community to which the institution appertains. I say therefore in assessing the value of the provisions we have to keep in view these two admissions made by the Honourable Minister, as well as the recent working of the democracies during the last fifteen months.
