Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 27: Autumn session of the Legislature is likely to have some extra days this year, unlike the previous years when the sessions in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State, were confined to six or eight sittings. However, it wouldn’t be a lengthy session either like the other States.
The session is most likely to begin on September 24, only 11 days before the Constitutional formality of convening the Legislature at least once in six months, expires.
Legislative Assembly Speaker Mubarak Gul told the Excelsior that the autumn session of the Assembly would start on September 24. He said he has spoken to the Government and the date for start of the session has been fixed as September 24.
Asked about one month notice required to be issued by Governor NN Vohra for convening the session, Mr Gul said the rules can be relaxed for convening the session at a short notice.
It may be reported here that generally the Governor on the advice of the State Cabinet had to issue a notice at least one month in advance before scheduled date of start of the Legislature session. If the session has to start on September 24, the Governor had to issue the notification on August 24 but that date has already expired.
However, official sources said, the Speaker and the Government had the powers to relax the rules and convene the Legislature session at a short notice. They added that the State Cabinet in its next meeting would write to the Governor to convene the next Assembly session. After the Cabinet advice, the Governor would issue the notification summoning both Houses of the Legislature to meet in Srinagar for autumn session.
The Speaker said he has reviewed all arrangements for holding the autumn session.
On concerns raised by several political parties and legislators over short duration of the session in Srinagar, Mr Gul said he would try to address concerns of all parties and individual MLAs on this issue.
“I won’t say that it would be a very lengthy session but definitely it would have more sittings than the previous session in Srinagar used to have,’’ he added. Worthwhile to mention here that the earlier sessions held in the summer capital in September-October used to have six to eight sittings.
One of the sessions convened in Srinagar during PDP-Congress regime had just four sittings.
Some of the legislators had observed that the Government had been holding autumn session in Srinagar only to meet the Constitutional obligation under which the Legislature must meet once in six months. As budget session of the Legislature had adjourned sine die on April 5, the Government had to hold another session before October 5.
The Government has already ruled out holding three sessions in a year as had been the practice in Parliament and other State Assemblies. The Parliament and other State Assemblies meet for budget, Monsoon and winter sessions running into as many as 60 or even more sittings.
However, the J&K Legislature hardly had 34-35 sittings a year. While 26 to 27 sittings are held in the budget session in February-April in Jammu, seven to eight sittings are convened during the autumn session in Srinagar.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee had sometimes back recommended that the Parliament and State Assemblies should hold at least 100 sittings in a year. However, neither the Parliament nor the State Assemblies had been meeting for 100 sittings a year, sources said. Jammu and Kashmir is just holding about one-third sittings than the recommended.
The State Government had a couple of years back proposed holding of three Legislature sessions in a year. However, the proposal was later shelved as the Government was of the view that it didn’t have enough business to hold three sessions. Moreover, it was of the view that already limited working season in some areas would suffer if another session was added as entire administration entire administrative machinery gets busy in replying to queries of the members of the two Houses.
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