In List I of the Government of India Act of 1935 what is now item 4 forms part of item No. 1, and reads as follows: “Preventive detention in British-India for reasons of State connected with defence, external affairs or the discharge of the functions of the Crown in its relations with Indian States.”‘ It will be noticed, Sir, that this particular item related to British Indian provinces only and not to the Federating States, the reason obviously being that if preventive detention were to be the exclusive concern of the Federal Government in the areas of the Indian States, the States themselves would find it impossible to take prompt action to prevent trouble in times of emergency. The present item seeks to extend this power to all the territories of the Federation and to that extent it makes the position of the States unduly difficult and it also involves unnecessary interference with their normal administrative machinery.
