BARELY A week after Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais returned the state domicile Bill to the state government, asking it to “seriously review” its legality, he returned another Bill – Jharkhand Finance Bill, 2022 – on Thursday. This is the third time the Governor has returned the Finance Bill, stating that it should be reviewed. On the first occasion, the Bill was returned as there were inconsistencies in the translation between the Hindi and English versions. Thereafter, this Bill was sent by the state government for Governor’s consent without passing the amended Bill in the Assembly. On Thursday, the Governor returned the Bill stating: “.the points and details mentioned in this Bill should be seriously reviewed so that whether (it can be) included in the State List under Schedule VII of the Constitution of India or not…send this Bill for approval after getting opinion from the law department.” Meanwhile, despite reminders, the Jharkhand government has not responded to the “desired comments or clarifications” that the Centre has sought on eight Bills it had sent for Presidential assent between 2015 and 2021. Among these Bills, The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) (Jharkhand Amendment) Bill, 2015 got 13 such reminders from the Centre. Principal Secretary to the Jharkhand Governor, Nitin Madan Kulkarni, wrote to Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh last month to make the clarifications “available as soon as possible so that further action can be taken”. However, sources said the government has not responded so far.
