The Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will now have to wait for the assent of the President as it is not within the powers of the Governor to pass the bill.
Governor Satya Pal Malik has reserved the MRSSAB, which seeks to regulate the entry of people and their stay as tenants in the state, for assent by the President of India.
“The bill is now awaiting the assent of the President of India,” the Governor said, while explaining that the President’s assent is required since it involves both central and state laws. He said that the bill was sent back to the state government for necessary action.
“The governor has sought views from legal quarters and on that basis, he has applied his mind. He wrote in the bill that it falls under the category of bills reserved for the President of India. The governor is of the opinion that it is not within his powers to pass this bill, which seeks to stop people from other parts of the country from coming to Meghalaya so that kind of power is only vested with the President of India,” a senior Raj Bhavan official said.
The Meghalaya legislative assembly unanimously passed the bill on March 19, 2020. It stressed on the need to verify and regulate the entry of persons to Meghalaya and also to monitor and regulate tenants or any other persons residing in rented houses or any other places in the state apart from the existing provisions of the Principal Act.
The bill says that every person who intends to stay in the state of Meghalaya for more than 48 hours shall furnish information in the manner prescribed under the rules.
It also maintained that “every person” shall not be construed to mean persons who has been residing permanently in the state and includes his or her relative or members of family as defined under clause (i) of section 2 of the Act, members of Parliament, members of state assemblies, members of judiciary, who is employed with the state government or the union government, who is employed under a board, corporation, society, organisation or agency, partly or wholly owned by the state or union government, professionals like medical practitioners, lawyers, chartered accountants, architects, attorneys, engineers, consultants by donor or funding agencies or any other professionals and any other category, class of persons, individuals, which may be notified by the government from time to time.
The bill further says that any person who wilfully fails to furnish the information or provides false formation as required as per section 4A shall be liable to be punished under section 176 and /or section 177 (knowingly furnishing false information to a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
“Provided that the first offense under this section shall be punishable only by imposition of a fine as provided in the Indian Penal Code, 1860,” it says.
