Dr.Ambedkar And The Constitution [Full Text Of Speech By Justice B R Gavai]

Guest of Honour Shri Siddharth Dave, learned Senior Counsel, all the Senior Counsel present here, Mr. Nachiketa Joshi, General Secretary, Supreme Court Unit, Adhivakta Parishad, all the office-bearers of the Adhivakta Parishad, office-bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association, office-bearers of the SCAORA, the Learned Senior Advocates as well as all the practicing lawyers, present here from the Supreme Court. It gives me great pleasure to be with you all this evening to celebrate the 132nd Birth Anniversary of one of the greatest sons of India, Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. As a matter of fact, on the 13th of April also, the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India and I visited the Bar Library to pay homage to Dr. Ambedkar, i.e. a day preceding his birth anniversary. One of the Associations, I find it difficult to know the number of associations the Supreme Court has, had organised some event during the lunch break. I also had the pleasure of attending that event. When we celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar, we recount his contributions. All of us know that he had a very multifaceted personality. His contributions to various fields are numerous. All of us know that he was a great economist. He was a social reformer. He fought for the emancipation of the downtrodden. He was an educationist. He established one of the first institutions in the backward region of Aurangabad, Marathwada, to cater to the needs of the downtrodden. He was a great sociologist. He had a deep knowledge of various religions. He was a great lawyer himself. However, he could not pursue law much on account of his devotion to the cause to which he had dedicated himself. But, as lawyers and Judges, who are part of this institution, all of us will always recognise his greatest contribution as the Chief Architect of the Constitution of India and, therefore, when Nachiketa came to me asking me to be here, since the time was short. I told him that I would address on his contribution to the making of the Constitution of India. Though 30 minutes would not be sufficient even to cursorily touch upon the subject, in the time that is allotted to me, I will try to refer to some of his speeches in the Constituent Assembly and cursorily touch upon his contribution to the greatest document that all of us worship, i.e. the Constitution of India. As all of us know, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had lost the election to the Constituent Assembly from the then Province of Bengal, which now is a part of Bangladesh. He was brought to the Constituent Assembly from the Bombay Presidency. When he entered the Constituent Assembly, the only goal that he had was to protect the interests of the Scheduled Castes and the downtrodden. He did not know at that point in time that he would be given the enormous task of being a draftsman of the Indian Constitution. The Constituent Assembly began its proceedings on 13th December 1946, with the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru presenting the Objectives Resolution providing therein the aims and objectives for which the Constituent Assembly was established. Dr. Ambedkar, as per his turn, would have spoken after seven or eight days. But Dr. Rajendra Prasad called upon him on the 17th of December 1946 itself to address the Constituent Assembly. Dr. Ambedkar said that he was not prepared because he thought that his turn would come after four days. But the vision that he had for the future of India, as to what India would be, is reflected in his very first speech on 17th of December 1946. Paragraphs (5) and (7) of the Objective Resolution referred to the fundamental rights, and sought to safeguard and protect the rights of the backward classes, the minorities, etc. Dr. Ambedkar said that there is no controversy with regard to these objectives. But he observed, “these paragraphs 5 and 7 set out the objectives of the future Constitution of this country. I must confess that, coming as the Resolution does from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who is reputed as a Socialist, this Resolution, although non-controversial, to my mind is very disappointing”. He said that, when one reads that part of the Resolution, it reminds one of the Declaration of the Rights of Man which was pronounced by the French Constituent Assembly 450 years back and he said that, by passage of time there was no necessity for Declaration of such rights. It is presumed that such rights are inherent for existence of a dignified human life. He said, and I quote, “that these principles have become the silent immaculate premise of our outlook. It is therefore unnecessary to proclaim it as forming a part of our creed” He spoke about one of the most challenges that he thought. He said that, besides, the Resolution suffered from certain other lacunae and I quote: “I find this...

Dr.Ambedkar And The Constitution [Full Text Of Speech By Justice B R Gavai]

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