Volume Xxxvi, No. 2 June, 1990 the Journal of Parliamentary Information
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VOLUME XXXVI, NO. 2 JUNE, 1990 THE JOURNAL OF PARLIAMENTARY INFORMATION VOL. XXXVI, No.2 JUNE 1990 CONTENTS PAGE EDITORIAL NOTE 149 ARTICLES Legislative Behaviour in India 15~ --Subhash C. Kashyap Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled 158 Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Some Reminiscences --B.K. Mukherjee SHORT NOTES Election of the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha 166 Birth Anniversary Celebration of 171 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia PARLIAMENTARY RECORDS 175 PARLIAMENTARY EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES Conferences and Symposia 179 Indian Parliamentary Delegation Going Abroad 179 Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training 179 (i) PAGE PRIVILEGEISSUES 183 PROCEDURALMATTERS 189 PARLIAMENTARYANDCONSTITUTIONALDEVELOPMENTS 194 DOCUMENTSOFCONSTITUTIONALANDPARLIAMENTARYINTEREST The Constitution (Sixty-Fourth Amendment) Act, 1990 216 SESSIONALREVIEW Lok Sabha 218 Rajya Sabha 230 State Legislatures 240 RECENTLITERATUREOFPARLIAMENTARYINTEREST 246 ApPENBICES I. Statement showing the Sittings held and Reports presented by the committees of the Ninth Lok Sabha during the period 1 January to 31 March 1990 249 II. Statement showing the work transacted during the Hundred and Fifty-Third Session of Rajya Sabha 250 III. Statement showing the Activities of "the Legi=- latures of the States and Union Territories during the period 1 January to 31 March 1990 255 IV. List of Bills passed by the Houses of Parliament and assented to by President during the period 1 January to 31 March 1990 261 V. List of Bills passed by the State Legislatures and Union Territories during the period 1 January to 31 March 1990 262 VI. Ordinances issued by the Union and the State Governments during the period 1 January to 31 March 1990 266 VII Party Position of Lok Sabha, Hajya Sabha and Legislatures of States and Union Territories 270 (ii) OUR CONTRIBt,frORS LARRDlS stands for Ubrary and Reference, Research, Documentation and Information Service 4rticIes PROFESSOR M.V. PvLEE is Director-General, Asian Institute of Development and Entrepreneurship and Former Vice-Chan- cellor, University of Cochin ( StiRI M.S. 5HARMA is Assistant Legislative Council, Legisla- tive Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, New DeihL (iii) EDITORIAL NOTE Shri K.S. Hegde, former Speaker of Lok Sabha and a distinguished jurist passed away on 25 May 1990. He had J"ade valuable contribution to our national life as Speaker of the Sixth Lpk Sabha and earlier as a Judge of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh High Courts. We deeply mourn his death. We also condole the sad demise of Shri Jagdish Chandra Dixit, Chairman of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, who passed away on 7 March 1990. The behaviour of the legislators in parliamentary democracy is watched with avid interest by everyone, more so by the scholars and intelligentsia. In the first article of this issue, "Legislative Behaviour in India", the author correlates the behaviour of the citizenry in genera! with that of legislators and notes that legislatures being the microcosms of the people at large, "the behaviour we see in the legislatures is a reflection of what is happening in the nation outside. If there are troubles around; if passions and frustrations are rising among the people,. ~ are bound to find an echo in the Houses of legislatures." The author asserts that if the representative bodies are to be judged not by the level of oratorical or debating skill, but by their performance in their representational role, "every successive Parliament, beginning from the first one after Independ- ence, has been more representative of the people than its predecessor." After analysing various approaches to the study of legislative behaviour, he concludes that "any methodology and any theory seeking to analyse the social and political behaviour of human beings, WOUld, of necessity, have its merits and demerits. As such, there is an urgent need to recognise that the study of almost any given subject in social sciences can profit from the application of a mix of approaches, both traditional and modern. After all every1hing that is old need not necessarily be bad. Likewise every1hing new may not necessarily be good." In the second article, "Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Some Reminiscences", Shri B.K. Mukherjee, Former Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha Secretariat recounts his experiences during his association with the Committee for eight long years in their formative years. According to the author, the Committee have gone a long way since their inception, but their achievements during the formative period were also not inconsiderable. He recalls some important recom- mendations made by the Committee in those years, w!1ich culminated in providing reservation to scheduled castes ar.d scheduled tribes in appoint- ments to various posts under the Governmentl public sector undertakings _ etc. in proportion to the total population: enhancement in the quantum of post-matric scholarships; uniform reservation in the Medical Colleges in the country; separate housing schemes for providing houses and house sites, etc. In conclusion, the author observes that "although much has been achieved, still a lot remains to be done. Shortfalls in the appoint- 149 150 The Journal of Parliamentary Information ments of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes continue. It needs only the political will to remedy the situation. The Committee's efforts have, however, not been in vain." With the unanimous election of Shri Shivraj V. Patil as Deputy Speaker, Lok Sabha has once again restored the tradition of this post being adorned by a leader from the main Opposition. We include a feature on the Deputy Speaker's election in this issue. The eightieth birth anniversary of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, an eminent parliamentarian, a great socialist leader, philosopher and thinker, was celebrated by members of both Houses of Parliament on 23 March 1990 in. the Parliament House Annexe. A feature on the event has also been covered in this issue. The HouSes of Parliament and State Legislatures are witness to various epoch-making events. Some such instances make records, while other may establish new records by breaking the old ones. We introduce a new feature, "Parliamentry Records" from this issue, which we hope, would be found interesting and useful by our readers. We thank one of our former colleagues, Shri M.C. Shah for having made a suggestion in this regard. We felicitate Sarvashri ,Lijum Ronya, Ghulam Sarwar, Shashikant Lakhani,' Radha Raman Shastri, Brij Mohan Mishra, Madhukarrao Dhanaji Chowdhury, M. Borobabu Singh, Yudhistir Das, G. Paianiraja and Harishanker Bhabra on their unanimous election as Speakers of the Legislative Assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, GUjarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Pondicherry and Rajasthan, respectively. We also congratulate Sarvashri Alapati Dharma Rao, C.C. Singhpo, Devendra Nath Champia, Prakash Velip, Shriniwas Tiwari, A. Bhaktavatsalam and Surendra Singh Chauhan on their election as Deputy Speakers of the Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Pondicherry and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. We also extend our felicitations to Dr. Umeshwar Prasad Verma and Shri Mohammed Wali Rahmani on their election as Chairman and Deputy Chairman, respectively of the Bihar Legislative Council., This issue carries the other regular features, viz., parliamentary events and activities, privilege issues, procedural matters, parliamentary and constitutional developments, documents of constitutional and parliamen- tary interest, a brief resume of the sessions of the two Houses of Parliament and State Legislatures and recent literature of parliamentary interest. We are constantly endeavouring to make this Journal more useful and informative, and would always welcome suggestions for further improve- ment. Also, practice and problem oriented non-partisan articles in the field of parliamentary institutions and procedures are welcome from Members of Parliament, scholars and others. -Subhash C. Kashyap 1 LEGISLATIVE BEHAVIOUR IN INDIA SUBHASH C. KASHYAP In a democratic set-up, especially a represtntative parliamentary demo- cracy, the Legislature enjoys a unique position. In India, which has deliberately chosen the parliamentary system of Govemment, the Parlia- ment and State Legislatures enjoy a place of primacy and pre-eminence in the governance of the country. The behaviour of the legislators is, therefore, watched with avid interest by scholars and laymen alike. When we talk of legislative behaviour, the ~ that immediately comes to the mind of a common man is really that of the present-day goings on in various legislatures and of the behaviour that the legislators put up. Understandably, nobody, least of all the legislators themselves, can be happy about it. But, at least the academics should try to analyse, understand and appreciate rather than condemn. Why does it happen and why do they behave as they do? Unfortunately, we criticise each other a little too much. The legislator, the civil servant, the businessman and the academic, each one tends to denigrate the other. We forget that we all come from the same social milieu and share the same weaknesses and foibles as our brothers and sisters in other professions. As for legislatures, they are more particularly the mirrors or microcosms of the people at large. The behaviour we see in the legislatures is a reflection of what is happening in the nation outside. If there are troubles around, if passions and frustrations are rising among the people, they are bound to find an echo in the Houses of legislatures. If there is indiscipline in the country-in homes, schools and colleges, offices, factories and elsewhere, if people do not attend to their duties anywhere, if teachers and students, workers and Government employees do not do their work properly, how can we expect only the legislators. to be in their seats and behave like good boys? After all, they are also as human and are also subject to the same pressures as anyone of us. Also, they are elected by us and, therefore, if anybody is to be blamed for their behaviour, it is we ourselves.