The state government’s joy of getting its ambitious Cow slaughter Bill passed in the Legislative Assembly turned out to be a short-lived one as the bill failed to get the approval of the Upper House (Legislative Council) on Thursday.
The Council was adjourned sine die on Thursday even before the government could table the bill for discussion. Unable to get the bill cleared in the Council, the government, according to constitutional experts, has to go the ordinance way to promulgate its decision.
Interestingly, the Council proceedings scheduled for Thursday had reference to the discussion on the Cow Slaughter bill. But when BJP MLCs demanded that their no-confidence motion reference be taken up for discussion, Congress MLC B K Hariprasad referred to the Cow Slaughter bill discussion in the proceedings and demanded the Chairperson to allow debate on the bill.
Responding to the suggestion, the Leader of the House Kota Srinivas Poojary said that the bill can be taken up for discussion on Friday as the minister concerned was not present in the House. When BJP MLCs insisted on discussing the no-confidence motion, Chairperson Pratapchandra Shetty adjourned the House sine die much to the surprise of BJP leaders. Unable to pass the bill that was already passed in the Assembly, the state government has no alternative than to promulgate an ordinance to enforce the provisions of the bill till the next session of the State Legislature.
Even though BJP MLCs had demanded the extension of the House proceedings till December 15, the Congress MLCs refused to fall in line with the saffron party leaders. Stating that he would pronounce his decision on the floor of the House, Chairperson Pratapchandra Shetty adjourned the House sine die when BJP members insisted debate on the no-confidence motion against him.
In the meantime, the state government has decided to write to the Council Chairperson Prathapchandra Shetty to conduct the session till Tuesday. “We decided to adjourn only the Assembly sine die and not the Council,” Law Minister J C Madhuswamy told reporters.
He alleged that the Chairman had adjourned the Council all of a sudden and set a bad precedent of defeating government bills repeatedly.
The Law minister further said that the Deputy CM Laxman Savadi and Opposition chief whip in the Council Mahantesh Kavatagimath had even met the Governor on Thursday evening to bring the matter to his notice.