The documents available with the Kerala State Assembly and the Gazette notifications have once again made it clear that Kerala has promulgated the highest number of ordinances (144) in the year 2021 among all the States.
Earlier, State Law Minister P Rajeeve, through a Facebook post, termed as baseless a report published by Malayala Manorama in this regard on Wednesday based on the findings of the New Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research, an independent research agency.
Disputing the Minister's rebuttal, all the details of the 144 ordinances promulgated by the State Government are available on the website of the Kerala Assembly. The details are also available in the Gazette too. The PRS prepared the report titled "the Annual Assessment of the State Laws" based on the details made available in these two sources. Moreover, the links of all these 144 ordinances are given in the Schedule of the PRS Report.
Ironically, the Kerala Assembly, which held the maximum number of sittings in 2021, promulgated the highest number of ordinances.
RAJEEVE'S CLAIM: The Minister said that in 2021, 144 ordinances were never in force in the State. Only 43 ordinances were enforced in the State last year. Of this, 34 ordinances were later converted into laws in the next Assembly session itself.
He further said that only for the purpose of the law-making, the Assembly was convened in October and November. At present, only 11 ordinances are in force.
REPORTER'S CLARIFICATION: It is not mentioned anywhere in the PRS report or in the "Manorama" report that 144 ordinances were in force at a particular point of time. The PRS report contained an assessment of the performance of each State regarding the number of ordinance promulgated last year, and the number of days each State Assembly was in session during the last year.
The details provided in the Assembly website and Gazette notifications clearly demonstrated that the PRS report was true.
PRS JUSTIFIES REPORT: PRS Legislative Research president MR Madhavan has justified its annual report. He said the number of ordinances given by the PRS is apt.
According to him, it doesn't matter whether many ordinances have been later made into laws by the Assembly. It is an undisputed fact that these were first tabled as ordinances in 2021, he said.
The link of the PRS report showing the list of 144 ordinances is bit.ly/prsreport
The link showing the list of ordinances given in the Assembly website: biy.ly/keralaord.
