Ordinance to empower SEBI to become an Act

Three Ordinances, including one to empower SEBI to curb ponzi scheme, and removing legal hurdles for the appointment of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, will be converted into Acts during the Budget session starting next month.

“They will continue to be in force (till the next session),” the Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here. SEBI Ordinance was re-promulgated by the previous Government on March 29, while Polavaram Ordinance (under Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act) and TRAI Ordinance were promulgated last month.

Article 123 of the Constitution says that the President can promulgate an Ordinance between two sessions of Parliament, if the matter requires immediate action. An Ordinance has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament. But, converting an Ordinance into an Act needs to be approved by both the houses of Parliament in the next session. Otherwise, the Ordinance expires six weeks from the time Parliament begins its session. The Government has already led all the three Ordinances in the Parliament and it needs to get them converted into Act by July 15.

SEBI ordinance The Ordinance aims to provide more teeth to the capital market regulator SEBI to act against ponzi and fraudulent schemes, assessing call data record in securities related offences besides others. The Ordinance was brought in lieu of the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which aims to amend three laws, namely, the SEBI Act, 1992, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and the Depositories Act, 1996. The previous Government failed to get amendment approved by the Parliament which resulted in re-promulgation twice.

TRAI ordinance On May 28, the Government brought an Ordinance to amend the TRAI Act to allow former Chairpersons to hold Government jobs post retirement. This was done to pave way for Nripendra Misra to take over as the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Under the earlier rule, the TRAI Chairperson or any member could not take further employment under the Central Government or any State Government after ceasing to hold office. Misra, a UP-cadre IAS officer of the 1967 batch, was Chairman of TRAI from March 2006 to 2009. But the Ordinance allowed former Chairperson and members to take employment two years after they demit office. The Ordinance also permits them to get employed in the private sector other than telecom companies during this cooling off period. The earlier law had banned employment across all commercial entities.

Polavaram ordinance On May 29, the Government promulgated an ordinance to pave way for the transfer of 136 villages, 211 hamlets and seven mandals of Khammam district to the State of Andhra Pradesh to execute the Polavaram project.

The Ordinance on Polavaram was necessitated as the proposal is not part of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 approved by Parliament in the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha as the UPA government chose to make it as an after thought.