news details |
|
|
| UT’ Govt has no powers to issue difficulties removal order in acts passed by Parliament: Harsh | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 13: Pointing towards the order issued by the J&K GAD conferring the powers of Chancellor of Universities upon the Lt Governor, Harsh Dev Singh Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) Chairman and former Minister today said that the UT govt has clearly exceeded its mandate and invaded into the arena of legislature.
Describing the order as bad in law, Singh said that the GAD has clearly committed an illegality by replacing the term ‘Governor’ by ‘Lt Governor’ in the Kashmir and Jammu Universities Act, 1969 barely through a “Difficulties Removal Order” issued last week.
He said that in the first place, the GAD has no powers for issuance of “Difficulties Removal Order” which expressly falls within the domain of President of India as clearly enunciated in sec 103 of the J&K Re-organization Act. And secondly, divulged Singh, the Difficulties Removal Order can’t be issued for modifying a basic provision in a law which can be done only through an Amendment Act passed by the concerned legislature i.e the Parliament in the present case. In the instant case, the UT govt had overplayed its hands and intruded into the domain of Parliament by effecting an amendment in the Universities Act by replacing the term ‘Governor’ with ‘Lt Governor’ which could have been done only through a bill presented in the Parliament.
Agreeing that the nine Universities in the UT of J&K had been suffering for want of Chancellor for the last more than seven months post J&K re-organization, Singh said that appropriate procedure as envisaged under law needed to have been followed rather than resorting to such shortcuts which do not fulfill the requirements of law. He said that novel mechanism adopted by the UT administration has amused the legal fraternity besides posing several allied questions. He said that appointment of Chancellor is the sole prerogative of legislature which could appoint the Governor, or any other authority or even an academician in the said capacity of chancellor.
It is being pointed out that if the GAD had the powers to issue such an order and to confer powers of Chancellor on the authority of its choice, then why did it wait for seven months despite serious difficulties faced by the various Universities of J&K for want of Chancellor who alone had the competence to take major decisions, approve selections, constitute select committees and other University panels.
Seeking the adoption of legal course in the appointment of Chancellor, Singh said that such arbitrary moves of the UT govt had only evoked cynicism in the past as well. “No one has the unfettered discretion to ride roughshod over law and circumvent the prescribed procedures in view of the principle of ‘lex supreme’ incorporated in the Indian Jurisprudence”, asserted Singh. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
