Note of Dissent
We sign this report subject to this note of dissent. We consider the safeguards for the minorities, embodied above, are inadequate.
1. There should have been recommendation giving due weight age to the minorities in (a) all Legislatures, Central and Provincial, and in (b) Services, both in the Central and Provinces. In pre-partition days under a system of separate electorates, the Muslim minority enjoyed such weight age. (Wide the Lucknow Pact, the Communal Award and the Government of India Act, 1935).
2. There should have been a recommendation that there should be in some part of the Constitution or the Schedule an exhortation to the Central and Provincial Governments to keep in view the claims of the minorities in the formation of the Cabinet, as it can be found in paragraph VII of the Instrument of Instructions issued to the Governors under the Government of India Act, 1935, and reproduced below:
"VII. In making appointments to his Council of Ministers our Governor shall use his best endeavors to select his Ministers in the following manner, that is to say, to appoint in consultation with the person who in his judgment most likely to command a stable majority in the Legislature those persons (including so far as practicable members of important minority communities) who will best be in a position collectively to command the confidence of the Legislature. In so acting, he shall bear constantly in mind the need for fostering a sense of joint responsibility among his Ministers."
3. There should have been a recommendation that no Bill or Resolution or any part thereof which operates against the interests of the minorities shall be passed in any Legislature if three-fourths of the minority representatives in that Legislature oppose such Bill or Resolution or part thereof on the ground that it would be injurious to the religious, cultural or social interests of the minorities. In pre-partition India the Quaid-e-Azam claimed such a right for the Muslim minority.
We beg to add with a view to safeguards for the minorities, it was proposed by us in a meeting of the Committee that there should also be a recommendation that “no Bill, unless it is supported by three-fourths majority should be moved in the Legislature which adversely affects any of the Safeguards provided for the minorities in the Constitution." The Committee did not vote it down, but opined that the matter might be more appropriately considered when we consider the provisions for the amendment of the Constitution. We hope and trust, it will receive due consideration.
