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Land ordinance: Supreme Court wants Centre’s reply in 4 weeks -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's response in four weeks to a PIL challenging the validity of the land acquisition ordinance but hoped that the Narendra Modi government would revert to legislative process soon and render the PIL "infructuous".

Three Delhi-based NGOs — Delhi Grameen Samaj, Gram Sewa Samiti and Chogama Vikas Avam Kalyan Samiti — and Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) have challenged the Centre's decision to repromulgate the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance on April 3 bypassing Parliament.

A bench of justices JS Khehar and SA Bobde issued notice to the Centre after senior advocate Indira Jaising argued that repromulgation of the ordinance was a serious infraction of the legislative scheme, which stood at the core of democratic governance. When the bench gave four weeks to the Centre to respond, Jaising said this could render the PIL infructuous.

The bench said, "We may hope that it soon becomes infructuous." The PIL could become void if the government in the coming four weeks introduces the bill, which was passed in Lok Sabha on March 10, in Rajya Sabha.

Introduction of the bill in Rajya Sabha would mean the ordinance would lose its life as the legislative process commences. The land acquisition law would get amended only if RS passes the bill followed by the President's assent to it. The land acquisition Act was passed by Parliament on September 27, 2013 and the UPA government had notified it on January 1, 2014.

A week after the winter session of Parliament ended on December 23 last year, the NDA government promulgated the ordinance which brought in certain amendments to the land acquisition law.

An ordinance, having a life span of six months, has to be laid before Parliament within six weeks of the session commencing. The budget session of Parliament started on February 28. This means, the ordinance would have expired on April 5 if it did not get Parliament approval.

After Lok Sabha passed the bill, the government knew it did not have the numbers in Rajya Sabha and hence prorogued it to enable re-promulgation of the ordinance, the petitioners said through advocate Devadatt Kamat and Gautam Talukdar.

"Contrary to all cannons of constitutional morality, the President on the advice of the council of ministers re-promulgated the land acquisition ordinance. The government's decision was driven by the fact that the 2015 land acquisition amendment bill was sure to fall through in Rajya Sabha. Ordinance cannot be a substitute for legislative process for enacting laws. The government had not even indicated the extraordinary situation necessitating re-promulgation of the ordinance," the petitioners said.

"In a democratic process, people cannot be governed by laws made by the executive. The continuation and re-promulgation of the same provisions of the ordinance after prorogation of one of the Houses of Parliament is nothing but a colourable exercise of power on the part of the executive," they added.

They said a government could resort to ordinance to meet an emergent situation when Parliament was not session. "The executive's mala fide in issuing the ordinance becomes clear as it had become abundantly clear that it was impossible for the government to pass the bill in Rajya Sabha even though it got passed in Lok Sabha. Sensing the difficulties, the executive, to sub-serve its perverted political ends, got Rajya Sabha prorogued just a day before the ordinance was to lapse and re-promulgated it," the petitioners said.