With regard to the elimination of the first part of the Explanation, which corresponds to Dr. Ambedkar‘s amendment, I need not say anything. I shall confine myself to that part of the amendment with which I am concerned. In fact the House will be pleased to note that article 44 deals with the election of the President. By article 43 of the members of the Houses of Parliament at the Centre and the elected members of the Legislatures of the States are sought to be empowered to vote at the presidential election. By sub-clause (a) to clause (2) of article 44 it is provided that every member of the State legislature shall have a certain number of votes and that would be dependent upon the population of the State. But it is provided in the Explanation as it stands in the text that this population should be taken from the ‘last preceding census‘. I submit that the original Explanation may lead to an impasse, as for instance, when the election is going to be held the figures of the ‘last preceding census’ may not be available. For example if there is a census on the 1st January 1951, as it is normally expected to be, and if there is an election of the President in February or March 1951–within two or three months of the Census–the figures of ‘the last preceding census’ will not be available. It takes about a year to prepare and publish the census figures. Thus if we keep the phraseology of the Explanation as it is we shall be bound to assign votes to the members of the State legislature in proportion to the population as ascertained in the last preceding census, whereas the figures of the last preceding census would not be available for the purpose. The result will be that the election of the President cannot be held. In these circumstances I have suggested the amendment that we should take the population from the last preceding census ‘for which the relevant figures have been published‘. By these words the impasse would be avoided. If election is held within a short time of the census and the figures of that census are not available, then this amended Explanation will allow the figures of the previous 1941 census to be relied upon. That would remove the impasse which otherwise could not be avoided as we will have definite figures to go upon. In these circumstances I submit that the amendment should be accepted.
