 "Govt not to rush with Parliament ratifying Arunachal central rule ordinance")
It will wait for the Supreme Court to deliver its verdict in the matter before moving for the ratification in the session beginning February 23. Generally, such proclamations as also Ordinances are taken up on a priority basis for consideration.
This was agreed at a meeting of union ministers today. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Najma Heptullah and Jayant Sinha attended the meeting that took stock of pending Bills in Parliament. The Budget session begins on February 23.
The meeting listed 74 items to be included in the list of 'government business' for the session. It was decided to give 26 items 'top priority' as the ministries wanted them to be introduced and passed in the Budget session itself.
A total of 16 bills, including the GST Bill, Lokpal (amendment) Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill and the Anti-Hijacking Bill are pending in Parliament - five in Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha.
As for the ordinance on President's Rule in Arunachal, the proclamation of President's Rule ceases to operate within two months unless "it has been approved by resolutions of both Houses of Parliament". President's Rule was imposed in Arunachal Pradesh on January 26.
"Passage of resolutions in both Houses to ratify the proclamation of President's Rule is our priority. But we will have to wait for the Supreme Court to deliver its verdict on the issue," a senior government functionary said. "When the matter is before the apex court, we cannot get a resolution ratifying President's Rule passed," he said. If the resolution is moved, the government will face challenge for its passage in the Rajya Sabha where it lacks the numbers.
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The Law Ministry, meanwhile, is in two minds on whether to go for an ordinance or bring a Bill in the coming session to amend two electoral laws to allow the Election Commission carry out a limited delimitation exercise in West Bengal to accord voting rights to people who came to live in the country following exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh.
The term of the 294-member West Bengal Assembly ends on May 29 and elections are likely to be held before that. EC wants a month's time for undertaking delimitation exercise.
This has made the Law Ministry jittery on whether the bill to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Delimitation Act, 2002 could be passed by March.
The Parliamentary Affairs Ministry is learnt to have suggested against bringing an ordinance at a time when the session schedule has been announced. Since the bill is not controversial and extends voting rights to people who have just become Indian citizens, it feels that the bill can be passed in the initial days of the Budget session.
The government will also push for the passage of a bill to replace the ordinance to amend the Enemy Property Act, which was promulgated on January 8. An ordinance lapses 42 days/6 weeks from the day a session begins unless a Bill to replace it is cleared by Parliament.
The ordinance amends the 47-year-old Enemy Property Act to allow custodians to continue to retain control over such properties.