category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit Monday wrote to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for the second time in a week, saying that calling the two-day Assembly session last month was patently illegal . In his letter that is likely to intensify the tussle between the Raj Bhavan and the AAP government, Purohit also said that he had been receiving complaints of corruption and sought to remind the chief minister that the governor is a constitutional authority appointed by the President. Purohit s letter came two days after Mann said it was very unfortunate that Purohit did not know whether the June 19-20 session was legal or illegal. Referring to Mann s statement which he made on Saturday, the governor said, For your information, opinion has been taken from one of the leading constitutional experts. Crux of the opinion is attached for your knowledge, which clearly mentions that the House so summoned was patently illegal. Now, nothing remains to be responded to your comments. With the latest development, the fate of four Bills passed during the sitting hangs in the balance. In a letter to Mann on July 17, Purohit had said the calling of the Assembly session was likely a breach of law and procedure and indicated that he may not sign off soon on the Bills passed during that sitting of the House. The governor s response had come after Mann urged him to sign the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, aimed at ensuring a free-to-air telecast of Gurbani from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. It was one of the four Bills passed during the June 19-20 session which was technically an extension of the Budget session that had not been prorogued. Therefore, it did not require the approval of the governor, it was argued. According to the legal opinion, a copy of which has been attached by the governor with his letter, it is within the Speaker s power to adjourn the meeting of House sine-die. But once the business of the meeting is over and nothing remains to be transacted, the meeting cannot be artificially kept alive, it said. Once the business of the House, as specified in the list of business to be transacted is over, the business of the meeting itself has come to an end. Unless it is evident that some aspect of business specified on the list of Business remained incomplete, there would survive no cause to permit the Speaker to adjourn the meeting, much less adjourn it sine- die, said the opinion. The opinion, while citing the June 14 letter of the secretary of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, said it is clear that the business of the adjourned meeting summoned was not connected with the Budget, and in fact there existed no unfinished agenda which required the meeting. This reveals that there was no justification to adjourn the Budget session sine die when no business remained, or that even after three months, no urgent new business necessitated such an invocation of the adjourned meeting, much less as an extension of the Budget session, it stated. The prejudice caused by not proroguing the House and by adjourning it sine die can be seen from the effect it has had on the Bills passed. Had the House been prorogued after the Budget session and had these Bills not been rushed through the adjourned meeting, they would have had to wait till the Monsoon session to come up before the House. This would have enabled the Bills to be properly studied and debated before they were enacted into laws, it stated. Thus, apart from the patent illegality that these Bills did not concern the Budget and could never be treated as an extension of the Budget session, the greater flaw in the procedure was that the law was pushed through the legislature without public consultation or debate or taking into account the view of the stakeholders, the legal opinion said. Besides the Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023, three other Bills -- the Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Punjab Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2023 were passed during the two-day special Assembly session in June.While the Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was for replacing the governor with the chief minister as the chancellor of state-run universities, the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was to pave the way to bring about an independent mechanism for selection and appointment of suitable persons to the director general of police post. In his latest communique on Monday, the governor also reminded the CM that his letters to him remained unattended which Mann had called as love letters . But you are supposed to know that as per the Constitution, the Chief Minister is duty bound to furnish the information sought by the Governor. Non-supply of the information is a clear violation of the Article 167 of the Constitution, wrote Purohit. (editor dailyworld.in)