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The Punjab government Friday sent a Bill removing Governor Banwarilal Purohit as the chancellor of Punjab’s universities to the state’s Raj Bhavan for the Governor’s assent.
The Vidhan Sabha had passed the Punjab University Laws (Amendment) Bill 2023 on June 20 in a special session, whose legal sanctity was questioned by the Governor subsequently.
The Bill had proposed to vest the powers of chancellors of state universities with the Chief Minister. The move had come amid an ongoing tussle between Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Governor Banwarilal Purohit on several issues, including selection of vice-chancellors of various universities by the government.
An official said that the state will now keenly watch whether or not the Raj Bhavan gives its assent to the current Bill.
“The education department has sent two Bills to the Governor today. Let us see what happens,” a government official told The Indian Express on Friday.
Besides the Chancellors Bill, the education department has also sent The Punjab Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2023 to streamline the working of the Education Tribunal.
Contacted, sources in the Raj Bhavan, however, said that the Governor had not received either of the Bills yet. “We have not received the pending two Bills yet. May be the government has despatched them and the dispatcher will get these delivered late in the evening. But the Governor is not going to be in Chandigarh for one week. He is going to his hometown. He will look at these bills when he returns,” a source from the Raj Bhavan said.
The Governor has previously indicated in a press conference that he would get legal opinion on the sanctity of the special session of Vidhan Sabha which was supposed to be an extension of the Budget Session, as the government had not got the earlier session prorogued.
A government official said, “We will see what he does. If he returns the Bill, the Vidhan Sabha can pass it again and send it back to him. In that case, he will have to give his assent. But if he decides to sit on the Bill, then the legislation cannot do anything. Then the only way forward would be knocking on the doors of the judiciary. But what remains to be seen is if he gives his approval for the session. If he say it has no legal sanctity, then none of the four Bills, passed by the session, would get cleared.”
Besides these two Bills, the Vidhan Sabha had also passed The Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Sikh Gurdwaras (Amendment) Bill, 2023. These were to bring about an independent mechanism for the selection and appointment of suitable persons to the post of the Director General of Police, while the Gurdwaras.
The Bill was aimed at freeing the undue control of a particular family over the rights to telecast gurbani.
The government had sent these two Bills to the Governor earlier for his assent. The Governor, in turn, had sent these for seeking legal opinion.
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