Governor – Government Flare up in Punjab, CM Threatens to Approach SC against Purohit

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Oct 20: In yet another flare-up between the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab and the BJP-appointed governor Banwarilal Purohit, the chief minister Bhagwant Mann got the state Assembly session adjourned within hours of its summoning and threatened to approach the Supreme Court against the governor’s refusal to give approval to three bills his government had planned to take up in the two-day session.

Mr. Mann told Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan that his government would  not table any of the Bills in the House, and urged him to adjourn the Assembly sine die. The House was then adjourned sine die, hours after proceedings began on the first day of the session. “I do not want that any tussle with the governor escalates further,” Mr Mann said.

“I request you that we will not table any Bill till we ensure Punjabis that this session is legal, and the Governor will have to give all approvals (to Bills) and also sign them,” the Chief Minister said and added that “we will knock the door of the Supreme Court in the coming days.” Following Mr Mann’s request, a resolution to adjourn the Assembly sine die was moved, and then passed by the House.

In a fresh round of tussle between the Raj Bhavan and the AAP government, Governor Purohit had written to the Chief Minister on Thursday communicating his decision to withhold approval for the three Bills. “Strongly suggesting” the Bhagwant Mann government to call either a monsoon or winter session instead of choosing to continue on this “precarious course,” he had said. Governor Purohit had said if the government continued with the “patently illegal session” he would be compelled to consider an appropriate course of action, including reporting the matter to the President.

Earlier in the day in the Assembly, noisy scenes were witnessed after Congress members questioned the Speaker on whether the session was legal, citing the observations made by Mr Purohit. Mr Sandhwan told the House that the two-day session was legal. “If the session is being held it is a legal session. As Speaker, this Chair deems the session as legal,” he informed the House after Congress member Partap Singh Bajwa, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, sought his ruling in the matter.

Though Mr Sandhwan asserted that the two-day session was legal, Congress members continued to raise questions on the issue and cited the governor’s letter to the Chief Minister calling the sitting illegal. Mr Bajwa pointed out that Mr. Purohit had written that this was an illegal session. “We do not know whether this session is legal or illegal,” he said and the Speaker replied that it was legal. “I don’t have any communication from the Governor,” Mr Sandhwan said.

Mr Bajwa said, “There is a big constitutional crisis in Punjab today. The Governor has said this is an illegal session. You are the custodian of the House (Speaker).” “The Governor has not given his assent to many bills earlier. If the session is illegal, then the bills which are being brought, it defeats the whole purpose,” he said. The ruckus continued in the Question Hour. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema slammed the Congress MLAs for unnecessarily raising hue and cry, asserting that the Speaker has already said the session was legal.

The AAP government had gone ahead with the session despite the Governor’s secretariat having said the October 20-21 session — being projected as an extension of the Budget Session — is “bound to be illegal” and any business conducted during it “unlawful.”

Ahead of the summoning of the two-day Special Session, the three bills the governor said he was withholding approval so that the bills could not be tabled in the “illegal session” of the State Assembly included “The Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2023,” “The Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023,” and “The Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023.”

In his letter to Mann, the Governor pointed out that he has already through his previous letters indicated that the calling of such a session was patently illegal, against the accepted procedures and practice of the legislature, and against the provisions of the Constitution.

“As the Budget Session stood concluded, any such extended session is bound to be illegal, and any business conducted during such sessions is likely to be unlawful, and ab-initio void. Inspite of these communications, disregarding the possibility of taking an unconstitutional step, it appears that a decision has been taken to call the session. For these reasons I withhold my approval to the above-mentioned Bills,” he wrote.

The Governor suggested that instead of continuing on this precarious course the Chief Minister may avail of a legally correct alternative of calling a fresh ‘monsoon/winter session’. “I strongly suggest you take recourse to this. If it is the desire of the government to hold an Assembly session, it would be proper and fitting to draw up and forward an agenda or programme setting out the specific business to be conducted including the Bills to be passed, with a request that a monsoon/winter session be summoned to transact the said business. Once this is done, permission would be granted for the same,” he added.

It’s the second time this year that the AAP government and the Raj Bhavan have seen a flare-up over the summoning of an Assembly sitting.