Law making in India
Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023 was also challenged before the Supreme Court and the petition challenging the Act also alleged that the Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) which was set up to study, analyse, and report on the Bill ignored most of the 1309 memoranda it had received which were critical of the Bill.
challenge to the legislative procedure and questions raised on the egregious ways in which laws were made.
Challenged the 3 criminal laws and forest amendment act in SC
there are limits on the power of judicial review as well. Articles 122 and 212 : validity of any proceeding in parliament and legislature of any state, respectively, will not be called into question in any court of law on grounds of ‘irregularity of procedure’.
based on the principle of “exclusive cognisance”, inherited from the British parliament, according to which both Houses of Parliament have the right to be “the sole judge of the lawfulness of their own proceedings and to settle – or depart from – their own codes of procedures”
2018 Puttaswamy II judgment (Aadhaar judgment): both the majority and minority judgments concurred in holding that the decision of the Speaker to certify a Bill as a Money Bill was open to judicial review.
Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in his minority judgment, further elaborated on this and said that the **theory of exclusive cognisance finds no applicability in India.** Article 122 cannot and does not completely bar judicial review of legislative procedure.
held that this Article only prevents ‘irregularity of procedure’ from being questioned, but not the ‘illegality of procedure’.
Article 118 Parliament to frame their own rules and procedures but these are subject to the provisions of the constitution
PRS Legislative Research, the 15th Lok Sabha set a precedent of sending 71% of all Bills to Parliament Committees, but for the current 17th Lok Sabha, this stands at 16% of Bills only.
Timeline:
2017, the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha, when most Opposition MPs had left on the assurance that the Bill would not be taken up on that day
2019, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill was sprung as a complete surprise and pushed through Rajya Sabha without affording MPs any opportunity to read or analyse the Bill
2020, the Farm Bills were cleared by the Rajya Sabha through voice vote amid intense protests, as MPs’ call for division (recorded vote) on the question of sending the Bills to a Select Committee was being denied.
In the Monsoon Session of 2020, as Opposition MPs boycotted proceedings following the Farm Bill fiasco, for 15 of the 27 Bills passed in that session, Opposition MPs were absent in either or both Houses.
In the Monsoon Session of 2021, as Opposition protested because the government stonewalled their demand for debate on the Pegasus snooping scandal and farmers’ protest, the Lok Sabha cleared 18 Bills amid protests, spending an average of only 15 minutes on each.
In the just concluded Winter Session of 2023, after the unprecedented suspension of 146 MPs from both Houses of Parliament for demanding discussion on Parliament security breach, 14 Bills were cleared by one or both Houses within 3 days in which the Opposition either did not participate or there was minimal participation.
