INDIA bloc leaders strategise for Day 2 of Parliament Session

New Delhi [India] : Ahead of the second day of the winter session, the meeting of INDIA bloc Parliamentary leaders was held at the office of the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.

The meeting was called by Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge.

Several leaders including AAP MP Raghav Chadha whose suspension was revoked in the Rajya Sabha, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, TMC MP Derek O’Brien, LoP in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Jairam Ramesh are present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday gave an Adjournment Motion Notice in the Lok Sabha and demanded a discussion on the death penalty for eight former Indian Navy personnel in Qatar.

“Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, and Sailor Ragesh, were sentenced by the Qatari court on October 26, 2023. I have been constantly raising this matter since August 2022 both inside and outside the House but the response of the Government has been – NO RESPONSE for -14 months,” Tewari said in his notice.

The Central government is set to move the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha later on Tuesday for consideration and passage.

Both the Bills, as per the list of business in the Lower House, are to be moved by Union Home Minister Amit Shah for consideration.

According to the list of business, Shah is to move the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha further to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was introduced in Lok Sabha on July 26, 2023. It amends the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act of 2004.

Meanwhile, the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament saw two bills being passed with the Rajya Sabha also deciding to discontinue suspension of AAP MP Raghav Chadha.

The Standing committee reports on ‘The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023’, ‘The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023’, and ‘The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023’ were tabled in the two Houses. The reports were submitted to the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on November 10 by Brij Lal, MP and Chairman of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs. The three bills are on the agenda of the government for passage in the winter session of Parliament.

On Monday, Rajya Sabha passed the Bill to repeal the Indian Post Office Act, 1898 and to consolidate and amend the law relating to the post offices in India. The opposition members raised questions over some provisions of the bill and asked if the government wanted to create a “surveillance state”. The government rejected the apprehensions of the members.

The bill was passed by a voice vote after a reply by the Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw. The bill provides that Post Office shall provide such services as the Central Government may by rules prescribe and the Director General of Postal Services shall make regulations in respect of activities necessary to provide those services and fix the charges for such services. The bill provides India Post will not incur any liability with regards to its services, except any liability prescribed through rules.

Lok Sabha passed the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which is in line with the government’s policy of repealing all obsolete laws or pre-independence Acts which have lost their utility. The Government in consultation with the Bar Council of India has decided to repeal the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879. It has decided to amend the Advocates Act, 1961 by incorporating the provisions of section 36 of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 in the Advocates Act, 1961 so as to reduce the number of superfluous enactments in the statute book.