Preparing Bills
WHEN Nepal went for a bicameral legislature, it was not without reason. A
well-functioning National Assembly (Upper House) of the parliament can make a difference
in the parliamentary check-and-balance. When bills originating in the Lower House (House
of Representatives) is passed to the Upper House, it is expected to be vetted by the
National Assembly members and receive the required inputs. Certain stipulations handicap
the National Assembly in involving itself much in the business of legislating. One reason
for such a state of affairs is definitely the set back with which National Assembly
functions as far as legislating is concerned. The National Assembly cannot move any bill
if it has any financial implication. Which means that only the House of Representatives
can move bills, practically speaking, as most bills come with the ‘finance’ tag.
Lack of a clear definition of finance bill in the constitution has given rise to such a
situation. National Assembly members are justified in complaining about being virtually
shunted out of the business of legislating. Speaker Taranath Ranabhat also indicated this
practice may not be good. He has thrown his lot with the National Assembly members. In an
interaction with media representatives at the Parliament Secretariat Monday, Speaker
Ranabhat assured the elders that such a situation should no longer continue. National
Asssembly Chairman Dr. Mohammad Mohsin promptly welcomed the Speaker’s determination
to solve this problem. Coming days will show how the Speaker will go about ensuring that
National Assembly too contributes its share bill tabling. Whether it is the Lower House or
the Upper House, the bills have to be drafted properly. As is the situation now, most
legal professionals find that the parliament has been passing many weakly-drafted bills
with little preparation and homework on them. Consequently, often the bills require
amendments soon after their passage. This is an unfortunate situation. This translates
into a lot of waste of parliamentarians’ time. Speaker Ranabhat blamed ministries as
being uncooperative in bill-drafting. The issue must be taken up seriously by the
government. The unhelpful ministries must be taken to task. And the coming session of
parliament should hopefully see improvement in bill-drafting in general as well as in the
bill-tabling practice vis-à-vis the National Assembly.
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