BKU and the NGOs - Delhi Grameen Samaj, Gram Sewa Samiti and Chogama Vikas Avam Kalyan Samiti - challenged the Narendra Modi government's decision to re-promulgate the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance on April 3.
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.
On March 10, Lok Sabha passed the bill amending the 2013 land acquisition law on the lines of the ordinance but it could not pass muster in Rajya Sabha. The government then prorogued the upper House and re-promulgated the ordinance on April 3.
The petitioners, through advocate Devadatt Kamat, said, "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."
They said this hit at the foundation of the democratic scheme in which law making was vested with the legislature.
"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," the petitioners said.
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.
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