The Gazette of India Delhi Saturday March 29 1919

The object of the legislation now proposed is merely to tide over the period intervening between the expiration of the existing Act and the introduction of the new scheme ; no alteration in other respects of the provisions of the present Act is contemplated. [...] The first was whether the Select Committee could consider the principles of the Bill and recommend to the Council that the Bill should be dropped and the second was whether the Select Committee could recommend to the Council that it was not within the competence of the Indian Legislative Council to enact the proposed law. [...] The Chairman of the Committee gave his ruling that the Select Committee had no power to go into the principles of the Bill and in his opinion the duty of the Committee was restricted to the examination of the several clauses of the Bill and the recommending of such alterations and amendments as it might think appropriate. [...]. His Excellency the President :— " That I should rule also was out of order as the Committee were only the servants of this Council and the Council referred this Bill to the Committee to report to them on the details of the Bill and not on the competence of the Council to bring the Bill forward." The Hon'ble Mr. [...] What is the object of the publication of a Bill ? It cannot be anything else than an invitation to the public to the people concerned to examine the Bill to see if the provisions of the Bill will suit the conditions of the locality or the community to which it will apply to see if any modifications are required.