IT News
Imphal, Sept 3:
Even as the 4th session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly session was held on August 29, the session besides, adjourning sine-die without discussing the ongoing crisis after nearly around 11 minutes, was summoned without following the Rules of procedures and conduct of business of the state Assembly, and as a normal session is mandatory to hold within six months of the last session, the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly stands ‘Null and Void’. This was stated by the Vice president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee, Hareshwar Goshwami while reacting to allegations to Congress MLAs by the BJP legislatures.
Former Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam and PWD Minister K. Govindas had earlier blamed the Congress MLAs alleging them of being responsible for disrupting the state assembly that was held for one day only.
Talking to reporters at Congress Bhavan, BT Road here in Imphal, Hareshwar Goshwami said that the one-day state assembly session held on August 29 was summoned in violation of the Rules of procedures and conduct of business of the Manipur Legislative Assembly and also the provisions of the Constitution of India the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly is ‘null and void’.
“I am not a constitutional expert. It is the competent court that will decide on whether the 12thManipur Legislative Assembly is void or not. But in my opinion, the assembly is null and void”, the MPCC Vice President told media persons.
He said that as per the rules normal session of the state assembly session should be conducted after providing notifications to all the members 15 days ahead. He said that the August 29 state assembly session was notified on August 21 and thus naturally the session cannot be a normal session even though there is no mention of either the session is of an emergent type or a special session which should be mentioned as per the provision under Rule 4 of the state assembly rules.
Goshwami also mentioned the Supreme Court ruling of 2002 in which the constitutional bench of the apex court had stated that an assembly session is mandatory within six months.
Advocating the act of the 5 Congress MLAs in the August 29 session, Hareshwar Goshwami said that blaming the Congress MLAs by former Chief Minister and five times legislatures in the state legislative Assembly, Radhabinod Koijam is unfortunate. Goshwami further said that CLP leader Okram Ibobi during the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee of Manipur Legislative Assembly had given his dissent in writing objecting the agenda as he demanded at least 5 days of sitting of the state assembly session in view of the ongoing violence.
Regarding the list of business, which has to be provided to the members at least before 5 days to all the members in normal session and at least 1 or 2 days in case of an emergent session, the list of business was provided to the Congress MLAs on the day of the sitting. When the MLAs show no mention of the discussion of the ongoing crisis the Congress MLAs are left with no means but to protest in the interest of the state.
The MPCC Vice president further said that instead of handling the issue the Chief Minister now started targeting the CSOs.
“CSOs in the state are voicing for finding a solution to the ongoing crisis and instead of finding a solution the Chief Minister blamed the CSOs”, Hareshwar Goshwami told the reporters.
