President Pranab Mukherjee has assented to the re-promulgation of the Land Ordinance, which came into effect from April 5 after the Union Cabinet gave its approval for such repromulgation in its meeting. President Pranab Mukherjee had signed the ordinance as recommended by the union cabinet on March 31
The fresh ordinance, which is the 11th by the Narendra Modi government, incorporates nine amendments that were part of the bill passed in Lok Sabha last month. The amendments include removal of social infrastructure from the five categories exempted earlier (defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure & social infrastructure, including Public-Private-Partnership projects where the Government owns the land). Other important amendment is about dropping an earlier proposal of the Government acquiring land for private hospitals and private educational institutions.
To enable re-promulgation of the ordinance, the government last week got the Rajya Sabha prorogued. Under the Constitution at least one of the Houses has to be prorogued for government to issue an ordinance, as an ordinance cannot be issued when Parliament is in session. The pending measure, titled Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill that was passed in Lok Sabha sought to replace the ordinance that was promulgated in December but the government faced the opposition roadblock in Rajya Sabha and could not get converted into a legislation.
Now, the Centre will have to replace the Ordinance by a Law of Parliament when the Rajya Sabha assembles again later this month to complete the Budget exercise. If the Centre again fails to get the Bill passed in the Upper House, it can re-promulgate the Ordinance again as there is no cap on number of times an Ordinance can be issued.