Provision in lawmaking
process ever ignored
Posted: 08/02/2010 - 13:44
• Members of the parliament have never exercised a constitutional provision allowing them to scrutinise draft bills or
legislative proposals moved by the government in order to make them more effective, one of the framers of the constitution said.
‘If the lawmakers had exercised the authority given by the constitution, most laws could have been made more effective and pro-people,’ said Suranjit Sengupta, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of law, justice and parliamentary affairs.
Talking to New Age last week, the veteran parliamentarian said that he had moved a proposal in a meeting of the committee asking the government to send its legislative proposals and draft bills to the committees before they go to the cabinet for approval in line with the constitutional provision.
Article 76 of the constitution, which deals with the parliamentary committees, including standing committees on different ministries, stipulates that the committees will examine draft bills and other legislative proposals.
But in practice, the ministries send legislative proposals to law ministry’s drafting wing for vetting of such proposals and draft bills. Then they are sent back to respective ministries, and the ministries place them before the cabinet for approval.
Once the cabinet approves the bill, the ministers concerned pilot the bills in the parliament.
Then again, the bills are sent to the parliamentary standing committees on the ministries concerned seeking report to the house. Once the committee presents reports, the minister in charge moves it for passage in the parliament. Lawmakers place different proposals and get little chance for discussion. In most cases, the treasury bench passes the law by voice vote by dint of their majority in the house.
‘There will be less loopholes in the law, if the lawmakers have chance to examine the drafts of any law,’ Suranjit, one of the framers of the constitution, told New Age hoping that the government would allow the lawmakers to look over the drafts, prepared by the bureaucrats.
He said that Article 75 (2) (a) has never been applied by the parliament. In a parliamentary democracy, the lawmakers should exercise their authority in legislation for the wellbeing of the people, he added.
In December last year, a High Court Division judge, Nozrul Islam Chowdhury, had censured the lawmakers for not initiating serious discussions before passage of a law.
‘A number of lawmakers do not even read the texts of the laws that they pass,’ he remarked.
His sketchy remarks drew flak from the government at the time. Law minister Shafique Ahmed reacted angrily to the comments terming them ridiculous.
He said that a sitting judge of the High Court could speak in public in this manner against the lawmakers and the parliament.
‘Enactment of laws is a difficult process…He has made a ridiculous remark on the process of passing laws because of his ignorance,’ the minister had said.
Source:New Age Bangladesh
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