House Belittled ? Law Making No Child’s Play
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: Ocotber 16, 2014 -
In a parliamentary form of government, the house composed of elective representatives of the people is the supreme in respect of law-making.
India, being a representative democracy, has its president as the constitutional head while the Prime minister is the real head of the government.
In matters of law making, all the bills passed by parliament require the assent of the president before it becomes an act.
At times, the president is mandatory to give assent to the bills passed by the House of peoples’ representatives.
Under certain circumstances, the president may withheld the bill (ordinary bills) or return it to the House for reconsideration. However, if the bill comes to the president for the second time after reconsideration by the house, then the president is mandatory to give his assent.
The practice, in fact, is a beautiful convention to uphold the position of the head of state (president) to acknowledge the republican character of a state.
Moreover, it shows the decorum indicating the supremacy of the president, though nominal.
The architects of Indian constitution took active care in balancing the powers between the legislature and the executive of the government.
The same tradition is followed in states where the Governor is the final signatory to bills passed by the legislative assemblies. Both the Governor and the House are highly respected institutions, into which the executive has little arena to intervene.
Sidelining all the constitutional processes in regard to the passage of Shri Govindaji Temple Board (3rd Amendment) bill, 2014, the Chief minister of Manipur reportedly urged the Governor of Manipur to negate the bill, apparently due to the burgeoning public protests over it.
In Fact, the bill was unanimously passed during the last State Legislative Assembly session. Now the pertinent question is that “Can a chief minister who is the executive head of a state ask the Governor to undo a bill that was already passed in the House ?”
That also without considering the voice of the 60 representatives of the people whose votes mattered during the passing of the bill.
The apprehension is that either the legislators of Manipur had not discussed the bill threadbare before giving nod to the amendment or the members were not well aware of the issue concerning the state and its people.
Nevertheless, without upholding the privilege of the Legislative Assembly and the Governor, the chief Minister made his statement out of emotions and so as to pacify the public apparently due to the by-election fever haunting his party.
In parliamentary democracies, privileges of the Legislative Assembly and the constitutional decorum of His Highness, the Governor of Manipur should always be upheld.
Withdrawal of the controversial amendment bill by a special session of the House is the right option at this juncture.
Such statements that belittle the House of the people may amount to breach of privilege of the honorable members of Manipur Legislative Assembly.
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