 ANALYSIS OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The Committee examined the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly under Article 171(3) (c) of the Constitution. At the time of framing of the Constitution, Article 150 dealt with the constitution of Legislative Councils in the States.

2. The composition of the Legislative Councils in States was considered by the Constituent Assembly twice. The original draft placed before the Constituent Assembly merely said that the composition of the Upper House in the States shall be as may be prescribed by the law made by Parliament. When this provision was discussed by the Constituent Assembly, the House thought that the constitutional provisions in such an important part of constitutional structure of a provincial legislature should be more concrete and specific.

3. During the course of discussions on the composition of Article 150, the President of the Constituent Assembly shared the feelings of Members of the House and suggested that the matter may be further considered by the Drafting Committee with a view to presenting a more comprehensive draft. Three amendments were moved at this stage on the original Article 150 relating to the composition of Legislative Councils in the States and the Article was recommitted to the Drafting Committee.

4. Dr. Ambedkar gave notice of a new Article which was subsequently discussed and adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 19-8-1949 before the Constitution of India came into being. The following amendments were moved by Dr. Ambedkar on Article 150.

"For Article 150, the following be substituted:

150(1) The total number of Members in the Legislative Council of a State having such composition of the Legislative Council shall not exceed one-fourth of the total number of Members in the Assembly of that State:

Provided that total number of Members in the Legislative Council of a State shall in no case be less than 40.

(2) Until Parliament may by the legislation provide, the composition of the Legislative Council of a State shall be as provided in Clause (3) of this Article.

(3) of the total number of Members in the Legislative Council of a State (a) as nearly as may be, one-third shall be elected by electorates consisting of Members of Municipalities, District Boards and such other local authorities as Parliament may by law specify; (b) as nearly as may be, one-twelfth shall be elected by electorates consisting of persons who have been for at least 3 years graduates of a University in the State and persons possessing for at least three years qualification prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament equivalent to that of graduate of any such university; (c) as nearly as may be, one-twelfth shall be elected by electorates consisting of persons who have been for at least 3 years engaged in teaching in such educational institutions within the State, not lower in standard than that of a secondary school as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament; (d) as nearly as possible one-third shall be elected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly of the State from amongst persons who are not members of the Assembly; (e) the remainder shall be nominated by the Governor in the manner provided in Clause (5) of this Article.

(4) the Members to be elected under Sub-Clause (a), (b) and (c) of Clause 3 of this Article shall be chosen in such territorial constituency as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and the elections under the said Sub-Clause and under Sub-Clause (d) of the said Clause shall be in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

(5) the Members to be nominated by the Governor under sub-clause (e) of Clause 3 of this Article shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely, literature, science, art, co-operative movement and social services.

5. During the course of discussions in the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Manmohan Das of West Bengal suggested that:

"in Amendment No. 1 of List No. 1, (4th week) of amendments to amendments, sub-clause (b) of Clause 3 of the proposed Article 150, the words for at least 3 years' wherever they occur be deleted. He further said that he fails to understand what difference there shall be between a graduate who has taken a degree yesterday or a few days back and a graduate of 3 years standing. if the sponsors of this Article think that for maturity of the educational qualifications, an experience of at least 3 years should be there, 3 years experience will be insufficient and inadequate., There shall be at least 5 years experience in the maturity of the qualification of graduateship. He, therefore, suggested that the condition of 3 years standing for being registered in the voters list under Clause 3 (b) should be deleted."

6. Shri V. I. Muniswamy Pillay of Madras gave notice "that in Amendment No. 1 of List No. 1 (4th week) of Amendments to Amendments in Sub-clause (d) of Clause 3 of the proposed Article 150, after the word "one-third" the words "including seats reserved for Scheduled Castes ,may be prescribed' is inserted". He further said that the object of moving the amendment was to get representation for the Scheduled Castes in the Upper Chamber. He said that no mention has been made about representation of Scheduled Castes in the amendments moved by Dr. Ambedkar. Unless seats are reserved in the Upper House for Scheduled Castes, it will be impossible for the Members of the Scheduled Castes to get seats or adequate representation in the upper House.

7. Prof. K.T. Shah of Gujarat, said that there were several amendments, on which he would like to seek the guidance of the Assembly. However, because of the new Schemes suggested by Dr. Ambedkar, all the amendments moved by him seemed to be irrelevant.

8. Shri S. Nagappa moved the following amendments:

(a) that in Amendment No. 1 of List No. 1 (4th week.) of amendments to amendments in the proviso to Clause (1) of the proposed Article 150 for the word "forty" the word "forty-five" be substituted;

(b) that in Amendment No. 1 of List No. 1 (4th week) of amendments to amendments it) sub-clause (b) & (c) (if Clause 3 of the proposed Article 150, for the word "one- twelfth", wherever it occurs the word "one-fifteenth" be substituted;

(c) that in Amendment No. 1 of List No. 1 (4th week-), of amendments to amendments in Sub-clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of Clause 3 of the proposed Article 150, the words "as nearly as may be" wherever they occur be deleted.

Provided that the total number of Members in the Legislative councils of a State shall in no case be less than 40.

8. Shri Nagappa further said that he was glad that representation had been given to teachers. Teachers had been silent sufferers all these years. They were the lowest paid in the *bole world and their right to be represented in the Legislative council has been recognised.

9. Shri H.V. Kamath moved the following amendments:

(a) that in Amendment 1 of List 1 (4th week) (that is to say the amendment now under consideration moved by Dr. Ambedkar), the proviso to clause (1) of the proposed Article 150 be deleted.

Provided that the total number of members for the Legislative Council of a State shall in no case be less than 40;

(b) that in Amendment 1 of List 1 (4th week) in Clause (2) of the proposed Article 150, the words "unless Parliament by law otherwise provides" be deleted.

(c) that in amendment 1 of List 1 (4th week) in Clause 5 of the proposed Article, the words "Co-operative movement" be deleted;

(d) that in Amendment 1 of List 1 (4th week) in Clause 5 of the proposed Article, before the word "literature" the words "religion, philosophy" be deleted.

10. Shri H.V. Kamath stated that in some of the States, the Lower Chamber consist 60-70 members in a State where the Lower Chamber has not more than 60-70 members, it would be most undesirable to have an Upper chamber consisting 40 members. The original draft of Article 150 in the draft Constitution had no such provision and had fixed only an upper limit which was to the effect that it should not exceed one- fourth of the total strength of the Lower Chamber. It Would not only be a luxury but an unnecessary drag upon the Lower House and if we once provided for a minimum of 40 Members, tell every tiny State could be engaged and instigated to ask for a Second Chamber. He further said that tiny State should not be encouraged to have a Second Chamber in their own States.

11. Sri Brijeshwar Prasad of Bihar opposed the Article stating that there was no reason why the total membership of the Legislative Council should be limited to one-fourth of the total number of the seats in the Legislative Assembly, subject to a minimum of 40 Members.

12. Smt. Poornima Banerjee said that she was happy that the teaching profession has also been associated. She also suggested that not only teachers of schools but also voluntary teachers should be included. In the new set-up, if education was to make any great advancement, we need help of able and qualified persons who would act as voluntary teachers. She, therefore, suggested that in the teaching profession, one should include voluntary teachers also.

13. Shri V. S. Sarwate of Madhya Pradesh stated that in Article 150, Clause 3 gives representation to university graduates.' The wording the Clause as it raises some difficulties. The expression- consisting of' persons who have been for at least 3 years graduates of a university in the State means that for graduates to be electors, two conditions are necessary:

"they must be firstly graduate of three years' standing and secondly the university must be in the State."

14. He stated that this would cause much difficulty. For instance, in Central India there is no university located. Therefore, any university graduate in Central India may not be able to vote under this Clause. He, therefore, suggested that against the words "any university", the words "in the territory of India" should be used.

15. Dr. P.S. Deshmukh stated that since one-third are going to be elected by the Members of the Legislative Assemblies themselves, they would most probably choose people like themselves. In other categories like those chosen by graduates and teachers, there is no likelihood that any of the best elements in society would be chosen. They were again likely to be of the same nature as Members of the Legislative Assembly. This Article seems to have been very hurriedly drafted.

16. He further desired to know why a secondary school teacher has been brought in far this privilege. If a secondary school teacher is lucky enough to find the place why not include the Primary school teachers also in the grant of this privilege. He felt that this was unfair to the primary school teachers. Secondly, when the Constituent Assembly is considering a graduate

as qualified person, to elect persons to the second chamber and also a secondary school teacher, how will it be possible to keep these people away from politics. He therefore, felt that the Drafting Committee has not paid very careful attention to this side of the question.

17. The amendment proposed by various Members of the Constituent Assembly on Article 150 (now Article 171) were discussed and the motion moved by Dr. Ambedkar was finally adopted.

Observations of the Committee on the Debates of the Constituent Assembly

The Committee discussed the proceedings of the Debates of the Constituent Assembly and felt that teachers' representation in Legislative Councils was given on idealistic considerations. At that time, it was felt that the teachers were silent sufferers. Their salary was also very limited. In order to motivate them and to let them have a say in the nation building, including its law making process, they might have been given representation in the Legislative Councils.

2. The situation now-a-days, however, is entirely different. The teachers are now being represented in various fora. Their salary structures have improved and they are no more silent sufferers. Moreover, the teachers' representatives have not made any significant contribution towards improvement in their academic performance. On the other hand, generally there is a tendency towards seeking improvement in pay, promotion, pension and other service conditions. By extending voting rights to primary school teachers, it is feared that it would further politicise the issue and the system of education may suffer.

3. Initially, nine States, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir, and Legislative Councils. These Councils have since been abolished in the States of West Bengal on 1-8-1969, Punjab on 7-1-1970, Andhra Pradesh on 1-6-1985 and in Tamil Nadu on 1-11-1 986. At present Legislative Councils exist only in five States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir. The Legislative Council of Jammu and Kashmir does not give any representation to teachers.

4. The Legislative Councils should have a minimum of 40 members. As such, only those States which have a membership in the Assembly of more than 160 members can have Legislative Councils. A statement showing the number of membership in the State Legislative Assemblies is at Appendix 111. Even if the concept of Legislative Councils is revived, more than half of the States would not be able to have Legislative Councils and the anomaly in representation of teachers uniformally throughout the country would continue.

5. At the time of framing of the Constitution, more than 90 per cent of the schools were private schools and, as Such, majority of the teachers were eligible to contest elections in the Legislative Councils. In the present scenario, more than 80 per cent or the schools have either been taken over by the State Governments or are being run by the local bodies. Being Government servants and bound by the Conduct Rules, they Cannot contest elections. Only a small fraction of the total teachers population would be eligible to contest elections.

6. The nature and extent of politicisation of teachers through involvement in elections in the context of the constitutional provision for their representation in Legislative assemblies came up for discussion in its various aspects. An apprehension was expressed that extending voting rights to elementary teachers would further aggravate the situation. The sufferers would be the children in particular and the elementary education system in general. Such a situation would not be in accordance with the spirit of the provisions of the Constitution. It was noted that under

the provision of Graduates' Constituencies, even those who were not graduates could get elected. Similar situations could arise in case of teachers' constituencies as well. This would probably defeat the very purpose of these provisions.

7. There is a lot of logic and force in the argument that other professions in society also have an equally important role to play in national building. If doctors, lawyers, engineers, journalists, freedom fighters and the like ask for representation on the lines of teachers, they would be making rational and logical point. Social, political and ethical implications of these aspects deserve to be examined in the context of extending the provisions of the Constitution regarding teachers. The Committee went into details of such implications, alternatives and consequences in the context of its terms of reference.