Sikkim Assembly passes Bills returned by Governor

Gangtok, June 17 (UNI) The Sikkim Assembly today reintroduced and passed all the Bills, with some changes, including the ones that gave immunity to the legislators from disqualification for holding the office of profit, which were returned by state Governor V Rama Rao with certain reservations.

The bills -- The Sikkim Legislative Assembly Members (Removal of Disqualifications) Amendment Bill, the Sikkim State Legislators Appointment to Different Authorities Bill and the Sikkim State Public Service Bill-- were passed by the House incorporating certain restrictive clauses and deleting some paras as per the Governor's suggestions.

However, the Bills failed to address ''reasons for retrospectivity'' in the Bills as one of the major observation made by the Governor.

Earlier, the Bills were passed by the Assembly on June 10 and sent to the Governor for his assent but was returned to the House for reconsideration on June 14.

The opposition Congress, the BJP and the Himali Rajya Parishad accused 17 MLAs of the ruling SDF of holding office of profit and demanded their disqualifications.

While Chief Minister Pawan Chamling moved the Sikkim State Public Service Bill and the Sikkim State Legislators Appointment to Different Authorities Bill, State Parliamentary and Law Minister R B Subba moved the Sikkim Legislative Assembly Members (Removal of Disqualification) Amendment bill 2006.

Opposing the Bills, lone Congress member Acharya Tshering Lama said the Bills were unconstitutional, violated various provisions of the constitutions and raised questions about the legality of the house to make law with retrospective effect.

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