Govt not to rush to ratify Prez rule in Arunachal Pradesh

Unlike other Presidential proclamations, government will not rush to ratify President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh in the Budget session of Parliament, with the matter pending before the Supreme Court.
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.
As per Article 356 of the Constitution, the proclamation of President's Rule will cease 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 following political instability in the state.
"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.
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 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.
As per the Constitution, 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.
Meanwhile, at a meeting of top government officials of various ministries convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, 26 ministries came up with 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.

Besides Naidu, Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Najma Heptullah and Jayant Sinha were also present in the meeting.
The first part of the session is from February 23 to March 16, while the second part is from April 25 to May 13.