Orders of the Day — Government of India Bill. – in the House of Commons at on 27 March 1935.
Mr Arthur Molson
, Doncaster
I beg to move, in page 69, line 18, after "Act," to insert:
or proposed to be incorporated after the passing of this Act.
The Clause as drafted provides that a British subject domiciled in the United Kingdom shall be deemed to comply with so much of any Federal and Provincial law as imposes in regard to companies incorporated, whether before or after the passing of the Act, by or under the laws of British India, certain requirements or conditions. It would still be possible for Indian legislatures to prohibit the incorporation of a company unless it satisfied certain requirements such as that a majority of its shareholders or of its directors should be Indians. I think it is the intention of the Clause that no discrimination of that kind should be possible and I hope the Government will be prepared to accept the Amendment.
Mr Donald Somervell
, Crewe
I understand that my hon. Friend is apprehensive lest there might be legislation relating to steps which have to be taken prior to incorporation by which the intention of the Clause might be defeated. He fears that legislation might discriminate in matters connected with steps which have to be taken before incorporation as a result of which you could not get incorporated and therefore the provisions of the Clause would be rendered inoperative. We are grateful to him for putting down the Amendment but I ask him not to press it in this form at this stage. We think he has raised a point which requires consideration and if there is any ground for his apprehension we shall certainly see that it is remedied at a later stage.
Mr Thomas Inskip
, Fareham
I beg to move, in page 69, line 32, at the end, to insert:
(2) If and in so far as, in the case of any such companies as aforesaid, any total or partial exemption from taxation imposed by or under any Federal or Provincial law depends on compliance with conditions as to any of the matters afore said then, so far as regards such members of its governing body and such of its shareholders, officers, agents, and servants as are British subjects domiciled in the United Kingdom, any such company shall be deemed to satisfy those conditions and he entitled to the exemption accordingly, so long as the taxation imposed by or under the Laws of the United Kingdom on companies incorporated by or under those laws does not, as regards such of the members of a company's governing body or such of its shareholders, officers, agents, or servants, as are British subjects domiciled in British India, depend on compliance with conditions as to any of the matters aforesaid.
This Amendment and the Amendment which follows it on the Paper are designed to do for companies incorporated in India but with British capital and British directors, precisely the same as is done by Clause 113 for companies registered in the United Kingdom but carrying on business in India. The effect is to put these two classes of companies on the same basis.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
