Punjab Governor terms special Assembly session illegal, says business conducted in it will be unlawful

Ruchika M Khanna

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Chandigarh, October 13

The office of Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit has called the special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha scheduled for October 20-21 as illegal and any business conducted during the session as unlawful.

Punjab had called the two-day Assembly session on October 20-21 amid the SYL row.

A letter in this regard has been sent by the Punjab Raj Bhawan to the Secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

Governor Purohit is on a three-day tour of the border districts and is visiting Gurdasapur on Friday.

The letter, a copy of which is with ‘The Tribune’, sites the earlier objection raised by the Governor over holding the special session on June 19-20.

“Based on legal advice, the Governor had pointed out on July 24, that calling of such a session was illegal, against the accepted procedures and practice of the legislature, and against the provisions of the Constitution,” it says.

The office of Governor has also pointed out that the budget session was adjourned sine die on March 22, after completion of the agenda for the business of the said session.

On the other hand, the state government is not willing to step down and has decided that the session would be held, as there are many precedents of calling a special sitting of the Vidhan Sabha after it is adjourned sine die and before the session is prorogued.

It may be noted that Governor had declared the June session as “breach of law” and the four important bills passed in the session–Sikh Gurdwaras Amendment Bill, 2023, Punjab Police Amendment Bill, 2023, Punjab Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2023, and Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, are still languishing in the Punjab Raj Bhawan.

Highly placed sources in the government as well as the Vidhan Sabha say that since the fourth session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha (that began in February) has not been prorogued, the Vidhan Sabha Speaker can call a meeting of the Vidhan Sabha on his own and no permission is required to be taken from the Governor.

The meeting is to be called, as discussed in the Cabinet meeting last week, on the SYL issue, to pay homage to MS Swaminathan, bring amendments in the GST Act, and to protest against the “use of central agencies by the Centre” against their political adversaries.