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A bumpy ride for Bills from LS to RS
Four key bills are stuck in Parliament following different stands taken by Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during the past year.
Four key bills are stuck in Parliament following different stands taken by Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during the past year.
The latest example is the Education Tribunal Bill, which was unanimously passed in the Lok Sabha last week, but the Centre was forced to defer it in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday following objections by the Opposition and a Congress MP also.
The Prevention of Torture Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha during the budget session, was referred to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Similar was the fate of the Wakf (Amendment) Bill on the last day of the monsoon session.
The fourth bill that could not pass the scrutiny of the Upper House was a bill to set up commercial divisions in high courts. It was passed by the Lok Sabha in December last year, but was referred to a Rajya Sabha select committee two days later.
The ruling alliance is comfortable with the numbers in the Lok Sabha, but short of a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
"The main Opposition took a U-turn on several issues. They said something else outside and something else in the House when some bills were taken up," said parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.
The Opposition parties were quick to reject the government's charge. "There is complete coordination between the party leaderships in the two Houses," said leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj in the presence of her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley.
"Dr Murli Manhar Joshi said in the Lok Sabha about the Education Tribunal Bill that such tribunals will darken the future of crores of people. We did not ask for a division in the Lok Sabha as we did not have the numbers," said Swaraj. "But in the Rajya Sabha, we were better placed to oppose it."
Swaraj said the party leadership in both Houses met several times before finalising the stand on any bill.
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