Governor Purohit terms two-day June Assembly session ‘patently illegal’

Launching another scathing attack at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit has said that the bills passed during the recent Budget session are patently ‘Illegal”, and said that the letters he sent to CM Mann are “lying unattended”. Additionally, Purohit said and that he has been receiving “various complaints of corruption”.
The letter sent to Chief Minister Mann on Monday is a scathing response to a statement made by the CM Mann on Saturday, where Mann had said that was “unfortunate that the Governor didn’t know if the session was legal or illegal and hasn’t taken any legal opinion”. The CM was referring to a letter sent to him by the Governor, wherein he questioned the legality of the four Bills passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on 19-20 June, saying that the session itself was in breach of the law and procedure.
The Governor, responding to the CM’s statement, said that it was “unfortunate” that such a statement was made. “For your information, opinion has been taken from one of the leading constitutional experts.
The 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 in your comments,” he has said. The legal opinion, a copy of which has also been sent to the Chief Minister, says that “though 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. 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.”
It further says that 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. “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. At least 4 bills which have no connection with the Budget have been 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 law. 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.