NEW DELHI: Indian President Ramaswamy Venkataraman has retuned the controversial Indian post offices amendment bill to Parliament for reconsideration.
The bill, seeking to confer power on specified authorities to intercept postal articles, has been returned to chairman of the upper house of Parliament Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, with the request that “houses of Parliament may reconsider the bill, specially clause 16.”
Clause 16 seeks to amend section 26 of the post offices act of 1989, conferring power of interception.
Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh had written to the President, urging him to return the postal bill to Parliament for reconsideration.
Venkataraman, in his reply Monday, intimated the Prime Minister that he had acceded to his request.
The bill, brought by the Congress I government and passed by Parliament came in for sharp criticism from the then opposition parties, saying that the measure would infringe on citizen’s right to privacy.
Former President Giani Zail Singh did not give assent to the bill but his successor, Venkataraman, examined various aspects of the measure and sought the attorney general’s opinion. The A G expressed the view the legislation was unconstitutional.
Veteran parliamentarians say that only on very few occasions in the past was a bill returned to Parliament by the President for reconsideration.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 19, 1990
