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| PANDIT JAWAHAR LAL NEHRU (14 NOVEMBER 1889-27 MAY 1964) |
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| KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY (31 DECEMBER 1898-3 JUNE 1974) |
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| K. B. SAHAY RECEIVING PANDIT NEHRU AT THE AIRPORT |
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| K. B. SAHAY TAKING PANDIT NEHRU AROUND H.E.C. |
On 12th March 1951, in a historical
verdict in the ‘Sir Kameshwar Prasad Singh
versus Province of Bihar (AIR 1951 PAT 246)’, the Patna High court
struck down the Bihar Land Reforms Act (Act XXX of 1950) popularly known as the
Zamindari Abolition Act as unconstitutional and violative of the ‘Right to
Equality’ enshrined in Article 14 of the Fundamental Rights. Zamindars were
very happy to get this verdict in their favour, though the Patna High Court had
held the law perfectly in order in six of the seven grounds on which it was
challenged. The Patna High court held (i) that the
Bihar Legislature was competent to enact the legislation (ii) that the
Act did not contravene Article 31 (1) of the Constitution, (iii) that the
acquisition of the estate and tenures was for a public purpose, (iv) that the
subject-matter of the Act fell under Article 31 (4) of the Constitution (v)
that Article 19(1) (f) had no application and (vi) that whatever powers were
delegated to the executive were permissible and hence the Act was not a
fraud on the Constitution.
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was aware of the efforts
made by Krishna Ballabh Sahay for the abolition of zamindari through
legislative means. He was also aware that better legislation than the one
enacted by K. B. Sahay as proposed by the Bihar Government couldn’t have been
put in place. The legislation was in sync with the recommendations of the
Kumarappa Committee. The Committee was constituted by the AICC in 1949 with J.
C. Kumarappa as its Chairman. The Committee recommended that (i) all intermediaries between the State and the tiller should be
eliminated and land must belong to the actual tillers of the soil, (ii)
subletting of land should be prohibited except in the case of widows, minors and
other disabled persons, (iii) persons who put up a minimum amount of physical
labour and participate in actual agricultural operations should be deemed to
cultivate personally etc. Since the Zamindari Abolition Act was enacted in the
spirit of the Kumarappa Committee Report, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru saw no
reason in going back to the commitment of the Congress as he declared candidly-‘Call it Socialism or call it Gandhism
that is what Congress seeks. The wind is blowing towards the villages and to
the mud huts where our poverty-stricken peasantry dwells and it is likely to
become a hurricane if relief does not come to them soon. All our political
problems and discussions are put on the background for the outstanding and the overwhelming problem of India-The land problem.’
This set the stage for
the first amendment to the Indian Constitution. “It is impossible to
hand up urgent social changes because the Constitution comes in the way,”
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to his Chief Ministers in early 1951. “We
shall have to find a remedy, even though this might involve a change in the
Constitution.”- It was an exasperated and somewhat angry Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru who had decided that amending the Constitution was the only
way out of a situation where the Congress party's flagship programmes had almost
ground to a halt. The exasperation of Nehru was well evident when he moved the
Constitution (First Amendment) Bill to be referred to a Standing Committee in
Parliament on 16th May 1951: “Somehow, we have found that
this magnificent Constitution that we had framed was later kidnapped and
purloined by lawyers.”
The Central Government
of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru stepped in to introduce the first amendment to the
Indian Constitution. And what better way to acknowledge the Bihar Land Reforms Act (Act XXX of 1950) as
a moving force behind the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution. It was an
acknowledgement of K. B. Sahay’s calibre and a tribute to his knowledge and
intelligence by an equally erudite leader. The amendment was necessitated to strike down the Patna High Court verdict. Declaring
that the courts stressing Fundamental Rights over Directive Principles of State
Policy and resultant social changes were hindering the 'whole purpose' of the
Constitution itself, the Prime Minister introduced the Constitution (First
Amendment) Bill in Parliament on the 12th of May 1951. Addressing
the Parliament, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru presented the Statement of Objects and
Reasons of this Amendment on 10th May 1951. This Statement was
appended to the Constitution (First Amendment) Bill, 1951 which was enacted as
the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, and read as under:
“Another article
about which unanticipated difficulties have arisen is Article 31. The validity
of agrarian reform measures passed by the State Legislatures in the last three
years has, despite the provisions of clauses (4) and (6) of Article 31, formed
the subject matter of dilatory litigation, as a result of which the
implementation of these important measures, affecting large numbers of people,
has been held up.
The main objects of
this Bill are, accordingly to amend Article 19 for the purposes indicated above
and to insert provisions fully securing the constitutional validity of
Zamindari abolition laws in general and certain specified State Acts in
particular.
14. Addition of Ninth
Schedule.-After the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, the following Schedule
shall be added, namely:-
“NINTH SCHEDULE
[Article 31B]
The Bihar Land Reforms
Act, 1950 (Bihar Act XXX of 1950).”
Article 31B restricts
Article 31 in so far as provisions of Land Reforms Acts are concerned. ‘The
peculiarity of this Amendment was that the Constitution restricts itself. This
was unique as this was never done anywhere in the World’-says Rohinton Nariman.
A new Schedule was added to the Constitution incorporating the Bihar Land
Reforms Act (Bihar Act XXX of 1950).
Thus the Bill drafted
by K. B. Sahay and passed by the Bihar Legislative Assembly as Bihar Land
Reforms Act (Bihar Act XXX of 1950) was the first piece of legislation to get a
place in the Ninth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The Ninth Schedule of
the Indian Constitution, incorporated through the first amendment to the Indian
Constitution is an acknowledgement of the genius of K. B. Sahay. Henceforth all
legislation on land reforms came to be placed under this Schedule making them
immune from the Fundamental Rights granted under Article 31.
The zamindars petitioned
under Article 32 of the Constitution impugning the Amendment
Act itself as unconstitutional and void. In a verdict delivered on 5th
October 1951, the Supreme Court disallowed all such petitions. Famous
Constitutional expert Rohinton Nariman noted that it was for the first time in
the whole world that a Constitution restricted the application of one of its Article.
This amendment was thus historical in this sense.
K. B. Sahay remembered
this support extended by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru lifelong, more so when Pandit
Nehru died on 27th May 1964, when he was the Chief Minister of
Bihar. His obituary speech reflects on the love for his leader.
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