New Delhi: Outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared four state bills before his term ends in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The four bills from the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Puducherry was signed by Pranab Mukerjee.
The Maharshtra’s Protection of People from Social Boycott Act 2016 was passed by the Maharashtra assembley in April 2016 makes social boycott a crime and prescribe stern action for anybody indulging in it. It also disallows social boycott of any individual or group by caste panchayats or groups of individuals. Violators invite imprisonment of up to seven years and find of Rs five lakh or both
Pranab Mukherjee also gave his approval to Gujarat’s Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution)(Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2017, which bans hookah bars in the state. Anyone found violating the law will invite a jail term of up to three years.
The third bill passed by the President is The Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 1999, which provides for 24 per cent reservation in public work contracts for Schedule caste and Schedule Tribes. The Karnataka state Assembly cleared the Bill in April 2016 while granting reservation to contractors from Schedule caste and Schedule Tribes communities in all government tenders, including tenders called by government-run institutions and local self-governments.
Puducherry’s Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2017, also got Mukherjee’s nod. The Bill proposes to amend “Sections 9 and 15 of the Puducherry Civil Courts Act, 1966, to confer pecuniary jurisdiction to the newly constituted subordinate judge court at Karaikal”.
