Centre unlikely to get BJP support for Judicial Bill

NEW DELHI: The government’s efforts to pass the judicial appointments bill, by extending Parliament session by another day has been defeated. It was only after the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs decided to extend the monsoon session till September 7 that government and Congress managers realised that they had overlooked the fact that the suspension period of MPs from Andhra Pradesh would end on Friday and they would be back to disrupt the House when it functions on Saturday. Considering this, the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday.

Anti-Telangana legislators from TDP and Congress, debarred from entering the Lok Sabha for five consecutive working days, in all likelihood would have returned on Saturday to disrupt proceedings. Even if the Speaker ‘named’ and debarred them from entering the House, the MPs were likely to block the extra day’s work by refusing to leave the House.

Compounding the government’s troubles, BJP has said it will not bail out the government in the Lok Sabha as it did in the Upper House.

On Thursday, BJP had helped the government pass the Constitution Amendment Bill to create a Judicial Appointments Commission, by staging a walk-out during the vote on the bill.

A Constitution Amendment Bill requires a two-thirds majority of members present and voting to be passed. By walking out, BJP members had helped the government pass the bill in the Rajya Sabha, where it doesn’t have even a simple majority.

Government managers had got indications that BJP was unlikely to repeat the feat in the Lok Sabha. Many BJP MPs are learnt to have said that by helping the government get away with the bill, the party would gift the UPA regime a ‘tactical advantage vis-à-vis the judiciary’ at a delicate time. “We get a feeling that BJP is not going allow the passage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the Lok Sabha, a minister said.

By Friday evening, the government side had realised the work on Saturday would be possible only in the Rajya Sabha and that the suspended MPs wouldn’t allow the Lok Sabha to function. To avoid it, the government asked the Speaker to adjourn the Lower House sine die on Friday night.