India News | Jharkhand Assembly Passes Domicile Bill Again Sans Amendment Sought by Guv

Ranchi, Dec 20 (PTI) The Jharkhand Assembly on Wednesday once again passed a bill that proposes to use 1932 land records to determine people's domicile status, without any amendment as sought by the governor.

The bill, passed by voice vote, was recently returned by Governor C P Radhakrishnan with some suggestions for reconsideration as per the “legal and constitutional opinion of the attorney general of the country”.

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Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam tabled the Jharkhand Definition of Local Persons and for Extending the Consequential, Social, Cultural, and other Benefits to Such Local Persons Bill, 2022.

According to the bill, people whose ancestors were enlisted in the 1932 ‘khatiyan' (land records) will be deemed as locals of Jharkhand, and they will be considered for appointments to Class 3 and Class 4 posts of the state government.

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In a special session on November 11, 2022, the Hemant Soren government had passed the bill by voice vote, and sent it to the governor for approval.

But, the governor had returned it to the government in January.

In a message, Radhakrishnan had mentioned that a section of the bill may be violative of a few articles of the Constitution, and thereby, invalid.

“After reviewing all the facts, it appears that the advice given by the attorney general is not reasonable and logical. The government has taken advice on this subject from the advocate general of the state, in which he suggested that the bill passed by the legislative assembly can be included in the ninth schedule by the Parliament,” Soren said.

“The ‘khatiyan'-based local policy is linked to the identity of crores of tribals and indigenous people of the state, and this has been their long-awaited demand,” the CM said.

Meanwhile, terming the bill as a politically motivated stunt, BJP legislators said it would face legal troubles.

“The way the bill was reintroduced and passed in the House, it seems the government is not keen to provide jobs to youths and justice to people of the state. It was tabled without considering the points suggested by the governor,” said Leader of Opposition Amar Bauri.

Besides, three other bills were also tabled in the House, including an amendment bill that ensures five per cent reservation in government jobs to dependents of people, who participated in movements, demanding Jharkhand state.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)