Wait for Data Protection Bill and Bills to amend Banking Act, Insolvency law and Competition Commission Act, etc gets longer as the Government has not included these Bills in the legislative business for the winter session of Parliament.
The session is due to start on December 7 and continue till December 29 with total of 17 sittings.
One reason for not listing Data Protection Bill is non-completion of stakeholder consultations on the draft. Last month, the government issued draft of the bill and said stakeholders can send their feedback by December 17. Post feedback, the draft will be finetuned and accordingly draft cabinet note will be prepared. This note will be sent for inter-ministerial consultation. After this, the final draft will be readied for the Cabinet along with views from various Ministries. Once the Cabinet approves the draft, only then can it be taken to the Parliament. The process will take time which is why the bill apparently could not be included in the legislative business.
Amendments in Banking Regulation Act along with Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act required to facilitate privatisation of some of the Public Sector Banks. The Budget for 2021-22 proposed two public sector banks to be privatised and for that a bill be introduced. There is no clarity when it will be done.
The Bill to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was listed for the Monsoon Session, but could not be introduced because of limited business on account of disruptions. The Bill seeks to strengthen Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code by introducing provisions on cross border insolvency. It also aims to amend provisions for corporate insolvency resolution process and liquidation process. Also, there is proposal to prescribe time-bound resolution of stressed assets while maximising its value.
The fourth key Bill is the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Bill seeks to carry out certain essential structural changes in the governing structure of the CCI and changes to substantive provisions to address the needs for new age markets. It was introduced during Monsoon Session and referred to the Parliamentary Committee. Now the Committee is expected to meet next week to finalise its report, post that process for Cabinet approval can be initiated followed by consideration and passage in the Parliament.
16 Bills listed
According to the Lok Sabha Bulletin, the Government has listed 16 Bills for introduction, consideration and passage, while three Bills to be taken up for consideration and passage post reports by Parliamentary Committee.
In Rajya Sabha, besides these 16 Bills, seven Bills will be taken for consideration and passage which are either pending or for which Parliamentary Committees have given their reports. Among the key Bills, the Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, is important. It seeks to strengthen governance, enhancing transparency, increasing accountability and reforming electoral process, etc in the Multi-State Co-operative Societies by supplementing existing legislation and incorporating the provisions of 97th Constitutional amendment. It also aims to improve monitoring mechanism and ensuring ease of doing business for Multi-State co-operative societies.