CHANDIGARH: Earlier this month on 5 April 2023, the Punjab Governor, Banwarilal Purohit granted his assent to The Salaries and Allowances of Chief Whip in Punjab Legislative Assembly Bill, 2023 which was passed by the Punjab Legislative Assembly on 22 March 2023 during its Budget Session. Consequently with such assent, the aforesaid Bill as passed by the House has now become
THE SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES OF CHIEF WHIP IN PUNJAB LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY ACT, 2023 (Punjab Act No. 5 of 2023).
Meanwhile an Advocate at Punjab & Haryana High Court, Hemant Kumar said that as per Section 1(2) of the aforementioned 2023 Act, it shall come into force on and with effect from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. This date would be 13 April 2023 since it got published in :Punjab Government Gazette of that date.
Be that as it may, Hemant seriously wonders if with the enactment and enforcement of the Punjab Chief Whip Salary and Allowances Act, 2023, the Opposition Legislative Parties in the current 16th Punjab Vidhan Sabha viz. Congress, BJP, SAD and BSP would have to change the nomenclature of their respective Chief Whip(s) in the House to some other name as a consequence of the aforementioned 2023 Act. Also, the moot but significant question arises if Chief Whip(s) or else the same with different nomenclature of above Opposition parties would be recognized as such by the Assembly Speaker.
The Advocate told that Section 2(b) of the ibid 2023 Act stipulates the definition of Chief Whip as "Chief Whip" means that member of the Legislative Assembly, who is, for the time being, declared by the majority party to be the Chief Whip in the Legislative Assembly, of the party forming the Government and recognized as such by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
Hence, in view of the above definition, Hemant says now statutorily (legally) as per the aforementioned 2023 Act, only the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which has a whopping majority of 92 MLAs in the current 117 member Punjab Vidhan Sabha can only declare any of its MLA ( read Talwandi Sabo MLA Prof. Baljinder Kaur who was declared in Sep, 2022) as Chief Whip who would be recognized as such by the Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and not the Opposition Legislative Parties in the House viz. 18 member Congress Legislative Party (CLP), 3 member Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), 2 member Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and sole member Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Of course, these three Opposition Parties can have have their respective Chief Whips but with some other nomenclature since the term Chief Whip is exclusively for the majority party forming the (State) Government i.e. AAP as per Section 2(b) of the aforementioned 2023 Act.
Hemant also told that as per Section 13 of the 2023 Act, the date on which any person became or ceased to be the Chief Whip shall be published in the Official Gazette, and any such notification shall be conclusive evidence of the fact that he became, or ceased to be the Chief Whip on that date for all the purposes of this Act. As on date, however no such Notification has been published in the Punjab Govt Gazette notifying the name of Prof. Baljinder Kaur as Chief Whip (read under Section 2(b) of the 2023 Act).
Meanwhile, while quoting the case of his home state, Haryana, Hemant said that in the year 2016, the then Haryana Legislative Assembly enacted Haryana State Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Act, 2016 where instead of the term Chief Whip as belonging to the ruling dispensation, the term used therein is Government Chief Whip. At that point of time i.e. during term of previous 13th Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Gian Chand Gupta, then BJP MLA from Panchkula Assembly Constituency and who is currently Speaker of 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha was then named as Government Chief Whip by the then Manohar Lal Khattar led first BJP Government in the State and was even conferred the Status of Minister of State.
However, as far as both Houses of Parliament are concerned i.e. neither in Lok Sabha nor in Rajya Sabha, there is no post with the nomenclature Government Chief Whip as declared by the ruling Modi Sarkar. Apart from ruling BJP, the Principal Opposition Party i.e. Congress and all other Opposition Parties/Groups in both Houses of Parliament have their own Chief Whips, quips Hemant.