Part of Orders of the Day — Indian Independence Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 14 July 1947.
Sir Godfrey Nicholson
, Farnham
12:00,
14 July 1947
This Clause ties up a little with Clause 10. The right hon. and learned Gentleman knows that those who write to hon. Members of this Committee are uneasy about their terms of future service. They are always asking: "If the Secretary of State is done away with, against whom will our remedy lie, when before we had a remedy against the Secretary of State?" If they are referred to this Clause the answer, presumably, is: The High Commissioner. Then they ask: "Yes, but what if no High Commissioner is appointed?" Can the Under-Secretary enlighten me at all on that point? Can he give some assurance that in the absence of the Secretary of State there will always be somebody who can be sued in court in place of the Secretary of State?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
