[Letter to Mr Minoo Masani]

Summary

This three-page English-language letter, dated 31 October 1965 from Patna, is signed by Niranjan Prasad and addressed to M. R. Masani. Prasad follows up on an earlier registered letter and urges Masani to ensure that the Advocates (Amendment) Bill No. XIV of 1965, introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 24 September, is considered by the Lok Sabha during the current session. He encloses a copy of the Bill and explains that a Searchlight report listing eighteen new parliamentary bills appears not to include it, prompting a request for verification.

The first enclosure is an official Ministry of Law circular dated 1 October 1965, forwarding the Advocates (Amendment) Bill 1965 to the Bar Council of India, state bar councils, law secretaries, and Union Territory administrations. The visible extract identifies an amendment to Section 24 of the principal Advocates Act, removing a dated transitional reference. The second enclosure is a Searchlight cutting listing proposed winter-session legislation, including fiscal measures, foreign-exchange and official-secrets amendments, a separate High Court for Delhi, criminal-law changes, measures concerning public order and national sovereignty, Jammu and Kashmir, a free-trade zone at Kandla, displaced-persons rehabilitation, and Delhi land reforms.

Key points

• Niranjan Prasad asks M. R. Masani to follow up on the Advocates (Amendment) Bill No. XIV of 1965.
• The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 24 September 1965 and was expected to reach the Lok Sabha.
• A Searchlight report on eighteen new parliamentary bills does not visibly list the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, leading Prasad to request verification.
• An enclosed Ministry of Law circular forwards the Bill to bar councils, law secretaries, and Union Territory administrations.
• The visible Bill extract proposes deleting a dated transitional phrase from Section 24 of the principal Advocates Act.
• The newspaper enclosure surveys proposed legislation on taxation, courts, foreign exchange, official secrets, criminal law, public order, Jammu and Kashmir, trade, rehabilitation, and land reform.