Council of State Debates Tuesday 17th September 1929 Official Report

This will not only serve to secure the independence of the Judges of the Privy Council but raise the prestige of the High Court Judges as well and enable the best of them to come to the Privy Council by a process of semi-popular selection without any of the defects of a popular election or nomination on party lines. [...] But the real and fundamental reason for the opposition to this suggestion is the wide-spread and general confidence both of the public and of counsel in the.Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which is one of the most authoritative judicial tribunals in the world (Applause) consisting as it does of famous lawyers and jurists of ripe experience proved capacity and world-wide reputation. [...] I think it is possible to overestimate the minor inconvenience of distance and to overlook the fact that the proposal of the Honourable Mover deprives India of the ripe experience and great learning of the members of the Judicial Committee--a tribunal to which Indian appeals have been submitted and which is regarded by the Indian public and the Indian lawyer as a weighty and authoritative tribunal [...] -While so I am at a loss to know why the Government of India should persist in having the headquarters of the Research Institute at Dehra Dun and if it is merely for the sake of the salubrious climate and the small savings in buildings and equipment it must certainly be the outcome of the penny-wise policy which the Government of India generally pursue and with which they are often credited. [...] As in the case of the Agricultural Research Council there should be at least two Members of the Legislative Assembly one Member of the Council of State as also the representatives of the independent medical profession in the Governing Body of the Research Fund Association which obtains its grant from Government.