§ Mr. Gallacherasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that 37,000 workers of the South Indian Railway have been deprived of their franchise in the railway trade union constituency of the Madras provincial legislative assembly by a recent decision of the Madras Government; and will he cause inquiries to be made into the reason for this?
§ Mr. ButlerUnder Section 24 of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies Order in Council, approved by Parliament last year, a trade union, in order to form part of a trade union constituency, must be certified by the Governor as fulfilling certain requirements. It was necessary to revoke the certificate provisionally granted to the South Indian Railway Workers' Union because the union failed to satisfy the conditions prescribed by the Order. Since 1933–34 the Registrar of Trade Unions has received no properly passed accounts or annual returns from the union; there has not been any validly constituted annual meeting for the last three years; and owing to the union being split into rival factions it proved impossible to secure compliance with the provisions of the rules for the preparation and revision of an electoral roll.