Haryana Budget: Bill for stricter laws to combat fraudulent travel agents cleared
The earlier versions of the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2025, and the Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025, were returned by the Central government with objections.
The Haryana assembly passed four Bills on Wednesday, including two that were reintroduced and require the President’s assent. The earlier versions of the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2025, and the Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025, were returned by the Central government with objections.
Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2025
Bill provided for measures to check and monitor the unlawful and fraudulent activities of travel agents and provide a mechanism to punish wrong doers as per law.
“Innocent and unemployed Haryana youth were being lured into the trap of illegal immigration on a large scale through illegitimate means. Unscrupulous and unregistered travel agents deceive them by promising easy and quick immigration to foreign countries. These agents promise to arrange work visas, work permits, study visas through offer letters from universities and colleges in foreign countries. But in many cases, they fail to deliver on their promises. In many cases, these agents provide fake offer letters and sometimes even form fake or unrecognised universities or colleges. They charge exorbitant fees and demand huge amounts of money at different stages. Many a time, these agents send innocent persons to foreign countries illegally and such persons are caught and put behind bars by the police of those countries. Therefore, there is a dire need to curb the illegal activities of such travel agents,” the Bill said.
Speaking on the Bill, Congress MLA from Beri Raghuvir Singh Kadian said that the observations of central government while returning the earlier version of the Bill were not made known to the House by the government. Kadian said that Punjab government too had enacted a similar legislation but was unable to control illegal migration.
Congress MLA from Jhajjar, Geeta Bhukkal said many youngsters who try to migrate illegally die during the course of journey.
Congress MLA from Kaithal, Aditya Surjewala said that Section 15 of the Bill complicates the definition of human smuggling thus making it difficult for the law enforcement authorities to prove an offence.
Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025
Bill provided for decent and timely last rites of a dead body besides allowing a public authority to do so of family members disown the dead body and depriving it of last rite. “The right to dignity and fair treatment under Article 21 of the Constitution is not only available to a living man but also to his body after his death. Honour and respect for the dead is recognition of human dignity. Keeping in view the right and dignity of a dead person, nobody should be allowed to raise any demand or bait for pursuing any demands by way of any protest or agitation by not performing the timely last rites of a dead body. It has become necessary to ensure that no person himself uses or allows the use of a dead body for remonstration of any kind,” it said.
Congress MLA from Rohtak, BB Batra said that the government should have told the assembly why this Bill was returned by the Central government. Referring to section 6 of the Bill which empowered a police officer to take possession of the dead body, Batra questioned the use expression personal knowledge of the officers. “It is the knowledge as per the record. This expression should be removed from the Bill,” he said. The Congress MLA also proposed an amendment in this regard. Former chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Bill should be referred to the select committee of the Vidhan Sabha for deliberations.
Congress MLA from Jhajjar, Geeta Bhukkal said that dignity of the dead body should be maintained but family members of the deceased should not be subjected to the agony of dealing with the police. “No family member would keep the dead body (for remonstration) for pleasure. It’s double trouble for the family members,” Bhukkal said.
Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Bill, 2025
The Bill said that gambling in India is governed by the Public Gambling Act, 1867, which is an archaic, British era law. The Law Commission of India in its 249th report has termed this law as obsolete and recommended that it be repealed.
All the state governments do possess the power to make their own respective legislation as the subject matter comes under the state list under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. The majority of the gambling laws are outdated because there has been a sea change in the form of gambling with use of electronic devices in view of advance technology and betting syndicates are playing havoc with the finance of public as the legislation has not yet been updated.
It has become necessary to introduce stringent punishment for those involved in organising gambling. Therefore, a primary responsibility of regulating betting and gambling rests with the state. The proposed legislation is aimed at providing for prevention and punishment of public gambling, keeping of common gaming-houses, betting in sports or elections, match fixing or spot fixing in sports and to achieve the object of saving the public at large from becoming victim of fraud.
Speaking on the Bill, Congress MLA from Kaithal, Aditya Surjewala said the Bill would actually open the doors for “satta”. “It is legally flawed and badly drafted. Section 2(h) of the Bill which defined gaming as game of chance does not include matka, satta, commodity prices satta, etc. and bettings of different kinds. Also, instruments of gaming such as cards, dice and gaming boards have not been defined in the law. The gambling laws of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana should also be looked into,” Surjewala suggested.
Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2025
the benefit of security of service is admissible to those contractual employees who completed at least five years’ service in government organisation on full time basis on the appointed date August 15, 2024. For the purpose of calculation of the number of years of engagement, a contractual employee who has received remuneration for at least 240 days in a calendar year shall be deemed to have worked for the entire year.
“The contractual employees have requested to count 240 days during a year of contractual service instead of calendar year otherwise their service of their first calendar year of joining will not be counted if their date of joining is between the months of May and December. Also, the cut-off date of August 15, 2024, would mean contractual job for 227 days for year 2024. The request of contractual persons was genuine and the Council of Ministers on December 28, 2024, decided that condition of 240 days in a calendar year may be amended to 240 days during a period of one-year contractual service,” the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill said.
