THE Council of State on Tuesday [March 11] debated a resolution moved by Mr. V.V. Kalikar asking the Government of India to take immediate steps to introduce necessary legislation for abolition of appeals to the Privy Council, reports A.P.I. from New Delhi. Mr. Kalkar said that some of the Dominions like Canada and South Africa had stopped referring appeals to the Privy Council … . Since 1921 this question had been debated in the Central Legislature many times and it was notable that both Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah were in favour of India having her own supreme tribunal.

The Government of India, Mr. Kalikar said, in 1945 circulated proposals for expanding the jurisdiction of the Federal Court but they did not proceed any further in the matter because a substantial minority was against it. He was also against it because the Government of India’s proposals envisaged that the forum of appeal would be left to the litigant and thus we should not be able to get uniformity in the interpretation of the law. In view of the impending changes it was incumbent on the Government of India to have a supreme court in this country.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022