Sir, I beg to point out that my amendment embodies all the clauses moved by Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar and in addition two further clauses. One is with reference to the jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is certainly the most important consideration in coming to a decision about the provisions of the Court. I may divide this jurisdiction into two broad categories, namely, the Federal jurisdiction and the non-Federal jurisdiction. Federal jurisdiction falls into four classes. The first class is original and exclusive jurisdiction which refers to inter-Unit disputes or disputes between Units and the Federation. The second class of jurisdiction which is perhaps novel to the Supreme Court in any constitution and which is not vested today in the Federal Court is that the Supreme Court may have both appellate and in some cases original jurisdiction with reference to fundamental rights. That is a new category which is being introduced by our constitution which says that in the case of fundamental rights, ordinarily, it will have appellate jurisdiction but that in any area where there is no provision or proper court to take consideration of fundamental rights, then the Supreme Court may have even original jurisdiction in the matter of such rights. The third category is the appellate jurisdiction with reference to the interpretation of the Federal Constitution and the fourth category is appellate jurisdiction with reference to Federal laws. All these categories of Federal jurisdiction are common both to Provinces and States and this will be possessed by the Supreme Court. But besides this Federal jurisdiction, the Supreme Court will have two categories of non-Federal jurisdiction and this will be confined to Provinces. One is that there will be an appellate jurisdiction with reference to the interpretation of Provincial constitution. Secondly, there will be an appellate jurisdiction with reference to the interpretation of provincial laws. It is a pity that the Committee of the Union judiciary found that they could not invest the Supreme Court with the same jurisdiction with reference to the States. I am not here to say that this should be done by coercion or any kind of imposition, but I would appeal to the States that it is to their own advantage that they should invest the Supreme Court with jurisdiction regarding their State constitutions and State laws in the same way as the Provinces have done. With reference to their own State Constitution, there may be disputes between the people and the rulers and the judgment of the State High Court may not be considered binding on the people. They may think that the State Court is not sufficiently impartial to interpret the State Constitution and they may say that only the Supreme Court can give a judgment which both the rulers and the subjects will consider impartial.
