Embarrassment for govt: Bill sent to Standing Committee

NEW DELHI: The government today suffered an embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha as opposition as well as some parties supporting the UPA forced it to refer to the Standing Committee a bill granting special powers to Election Commission on delimitation of SC/ST constituencies.

The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Bill, 2013, needed to be passed urgently as it was to replace an ordinance which would expire around April 4.

Soon after Law Minister Ashwani Kumar rose to seek the approval of the House for consideration and passage of the bill, members from various parties, including BJP, BSP, SP and CPI-M objected to rushing through the crucial legislation.

They insisted that the bill should be referred to the Standing Committee because it concerns all political parties as it related to delimitation of constituencies.

Kumar pleaded with the members to pass the Bill as it sought to replace an Ordinance promulgated by the government to bring the Supreme Court judgement into effect.

The Law Minister initially ignored the members' views, but finally conceded after Naresh Agarwal (SP) demanded voting on the issue. The Minister, however, sought a specific time frame be fixed to deal with the issue in the Standing Committee.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said going by the sense of the House and the Minister yielding to the members' demand, the matter will be referred to the Standing Committee and the Chairman will fix the time frame for dealing with the issue.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said the legislative procedures could not be bypassed and even the Supreme Court had not asked the government to do so.

He said the judgement came on January 10, 2012, and the government brought the Ordinance a year later after "a slumber".

Others who pressed for sending the bill to the Standing Committee included Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Satish Misra (BSP) and Ramgopal Yadav (SP). BSP and SP support the UPA from outside.