Governor sitting on Howrah Municipality Bill, claims Bengal govt; desk is clear, insists Raj Bhavan

The fate of a Municipal Bifurcation Bill has been shrouded in mystery in Bengal for about six months now, raising some serious questions about the legislative process.

The Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that proposes to exclude areas of erstwhile Bally municipality from the jurisdiction of the HMC was passed by the West Bengal Assembly on November 17, 2021. It was then sent to the Governor for his assent.

Since then, there is no clarity over the fate of the bill as Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Assembly speaker Biman Banerjee contradict each other over the proposed legislation’s status. In his latest salvo against the Governor, the Speaker said the Assembly was clueless about the fate of the Bill.

“He (Governor) comes to the Assembly and claims that no bill is pending with him. But the reality is the HMC Amendment Bill is still pending with him,” the Speaker said, contradicting the Governor’s claim.

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Until the Bill is notified, municipality elections in Howrah and Bally cannot be conducted, impacting civic services. Elections to the HMC have been pending since 2018.

The Speaker said after the bill was passed by the Assembly, it was sent to the Governor for his necessary nod but, till date, there was no response from the Raj Bhavan. “The Governor will either give his assent or send recommendations if any. He can also uphold the same and send it to the President of India. He only knows what he is doing with the Gill,” Banerjee told newspersons recently.

Objections raised, responded to

The Speaker’s statement only deepened the ongoing confusion over the Bill, though sources in the state government say the Governor had returned the bill in November last year “flagging some issues”.

In a four-page note to the government, the Governor reportedly objected to the Bill, saying “on quintessentially jurisdictional aspect in respect of consideration of the objections by the State Government under section 219 of the (Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980) Act, the authorities have acted in an arbitrary, unfair and non-judicious manner.”

The state government responded to the issues raised by the Governor on December 20, 2021. But, not satisfied with the response, the Governor, through another note dated December 24, sought further clarification from the government. The reply to the Governor’s second note was sent to the Raj Bhavan on December 28 and since then the Bill is reportedly pending with the Governor.

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Interestingly, amidst exchange of files, the state’s advocate general had told the Calcutta high court that the Governor had given his assent to the Bill. After the Governor contradicted the claim, the AG clarified that there was a miscommunication and that the Governor’s nod to the bill was still pending.

The Governor’s subsequent claim that no nill or file was pending with him added to the confusion and also exposed how the strained relation between the state government and the Raj Bhavan is putting a spanner in the discharge of public services.

“Under Article 200 of the Constitution that deals with the Raj Bhavan’s power in approving a bill passed by the Assembly, the Governor will either give his assent to a bill or return it to the House for reconsideration. He can also reserve the bill for the consideration of the President. But cannot sit on it permanently,” said senior Kolkata-based lawyer Naba Pallab Roy.