Bogged down by Vyapam, MP govt now arms itself with controversial bill to tackle PILs

Bhopal: Amid the pandemonium that has become a regular feature of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in view of the Vyapam scam, the ruling BJP managed to pass a contentious legislation via voice vote that might nip PILs in the bud if filed against people in key positions. [caption id=“attachment_2350666” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Madhya Pradesh Chief Minsiter Shivraj Singh Chouhan. AFP[/caption] Madhya Pradesh Vexatious Litigation (Prevention) Bill, 2015 (MP Tang Karnewali Mukadmebaji (Nivaran) Vidheyak, 2015, forbids people from moving petitions against lower courts and the high court “on unreasonable grounds.” Law Minister Kusum Mehdele tabled the bill that was passed by voice vote amid chaos. At a time when the government is busy fending off accusations of big ticket corruption the new law could nip some litigation in the bud. The bill allows state advocate general to challenge any “frivolous and mischievous” petition and get it dismissed in a court. All the AG needs to do is to file a plea in the high court to declare a person “a vexatious litigant” and prevent him from filing any civil or criminal petition without the court’s permission. Such orders would almost remain beyond appeal until the litigant moves the apex court at prohibitive cost. It would make many cases against government functionaries non-justiceable. Transparency International Board member and RTI activist Ajay Dubey said that he would challenge the Bill in the Supreme Court. He said that the Bill has been passed at a time, when scams like Vyapam and DMAT in Madhya Pradesh were making international news because of PILs only. The state cabinet approved the bill in March on the suggestions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Registrar General in August 2014. The idea was to reduce frivolous litigation burdening courts. The ruling parties could misuse the provisions to quell genuine public outcry over vital matters. The Congress refused to realise that the bill passed on Wednesday brings in draconian measures to prevent public from moving the court against people in important positions. Too busy with their political slugfest even inside the Vidhan Sabha, the Congress and BJP seem hell bent on rendering the Legislative Assembly irrelevant in Madhya Pradesh. Very few sessions ran their full course of stipulated sittings in the 13th Vidhan Sabha. Four of the seven sessions so far has been curtailed due to unruly conduct of the members in the 14th one that was constituted in December 2013. The latest one, the Monsoon session, was adjourned sine die on Wednesday after three days of noisy and violent scenes over the Vyapam controversy. Nine sittings were scheduled in the session which began on Monday and was to end on 31 July. While any discussion was ruled out under the circumstances the House managed to pass five bills including the one on litigation and a supplementary budget for Rs 8,583 crore for the current financial year amid bedlam. Two other bills were tabled and passed in less than 20 minutes. The opposition’s intents were clear. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party didn’t want to miss the camera glare. The BSP members, just four in number, began Wednesday’s disruption converging into the well seeking the chief minister’s resignation over Vyapam scam. An altercation with BJP MLA Narendra Kushwah, sparked off the trouble. The House was adjourned twice on the issue. When the proceedings resumed Congress members entered the well to press the same demand. Speaker Sitasaran Sharma adjourned the proceedings sine die. Congress members staged a dharna in the assembly premises after the adjournment. Having forced a CBI investigation in the Vyapam scam the Congress had little to achieve from the session. It wanted to stay afloat in the news by disrupting the proceedings. The Congress also squandered an opportunity to corner the ruling party over another scam of over Rs 136 crore in purchase of bitumen by the state Public Works Department in 2012-13. The report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which was tabled amid noise in the House revealed massive irregularities in acquiring bitumen by the state government. The BJP, on the other hand, had meticulously worked out strategy to counter the Congress plan. During the backstage preparations the RSS point-person for the state Arvind Menon had told the members to match the Congress move for move physically and verbally. The ruling party members apparently got carried away and muscled their way past the Congress members to grab the media attention as the TV camera crew waited outside the House. Throwing propriety to winds the BJP also roped in the additional advocate general of the state to coach the members on how to counter the opposition. In one of the preparatory meetings on Monday the AAG P Kaurav tutored some nervous members on how to silence the opposition. Kaurav a former cadre of the Akhil Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) distributed a booklet on the scam. Kaurav whom the Congress has accused of pleading the cases of both the Vyapam and the accused in the scam has shown more enthusiasm in dealing with the Congress than some BJP members.