14 bills pending, 16 on anvil

The government is all set to introduce 16 new bills during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, the most significant among them being the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015, that will replace an ordinance and aims to set a fixed timeline for clearing arbitration cases. The proposed legislation is also aimed at improving the outlook on ease of doing business in India.

At the same time though, there are as many as 14 bills which, after being passed by the Lok Sabha, are pending in the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA government does not have adequate numbers to push them through.

Chief among the pending legislations in the RS are the GST Bill (which is a Constitution Amendment Bill), Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013, Whistleblowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

According to information available with this newspaper, apart from the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the two other pending legislations, namely the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015, will also be replacing ordinances, provided they are passed by the RS.

The provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2015 set a fixed timeline to clear arbitration cases. Under it, arbitrators will have to wrap up cases within 12 months, and these are extendable by another six months only. After this, only courts can extend the period. With India placed a lowly 142 in a ranking of 189 countries in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” list, the aforementioned legislation is aimed at improving the country’s standing and the government is keen that this bill is cleared by both the Houses during the ongoing session itself.

Some of the other new legislations which the government will be introducing in the session are the Atomic Energy (Amendment) Bill, 2015, Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill, 2015 and the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill, 2015, among others.

The GST Bill is likely to hog the limelight during the session, as there are indications from within the Congress that the deadlock on certain key provisions of the bill remain and its passage in the Upper House may not be that easy after all.