By Chakshu Roy

Parliament was the focus of public attention during the recently concluded winter session. Prime time news discussed each law passed by it and every instance of disruption. During this time, the legislatures of 13 states were meeting for their winter sessions. These legislatures passed several important laws, but their work and functioning went ignored. Here is a snapshot of some of the legislative activity and the major problems associated with the functioning of state assemblies.

Earlier this month, the legislatures of the poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand met for a three-day session. Issues that would resonate in the forthcoming elections were on the agenda of the lawmaking bodies of both states. In UP, lakhs of farmers are engaged in sugarcane cultivation. Milling companies owe them approximately Rs 3,700 crore for the 2020-21 season. In the winter session, the UP Vidhan Sabha strengthened an existing law for getting the mills to pay farmers their cane dues.

The legislature amended the UP Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 1953, to allow the recovery of sugarcane dues from the group companies of defaulting sugar mills. The assembly also changed a law regulating the supply of molasses in the state. And, on a related topic, the Haryana legislature lowered the drinking age in the state from 25 to 21.

In Uttarakhand, the state legislature’s final action was to reverse its position on two laws. Last year, it enacted a law for agriculture produce and livestock marketing (APMC) based on the controversial central farm law. After the central government repealed the three farm laws, the hill states legislature revived its earlier APMC law from 2011.

The second law relates to the four Hindu shrines in Uttarakhand, Shri Badrinath Dham, Shri Kedarnath Dham and the holy devasthanams of Gangotri and Yamnotri. In 2019, the legislature had passed a law for administering the four shrines and 49 other temples by a management board. Priests and religious leaders protested against the law, terming it an infringement of their traditional rights. In the face of mounting protests, the assembly repealed the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act.

In addition to agriculture, the Constitution empowers state legislatures to make laws on the subject of law and order. In Jharkhand, the state assembly passed a law to curb the menace of mob-lynching. The law punishes the perpetrators with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The state had witnessed the dastardly lynching of a 24-year-old in 2019.

A year earlier, the Supreme Court had observed that “Mob vigilantism and mob violence have to be prevented by the governments by taking strict action… Rising intolerance and growing polarisation expressed through [a] spate of incidents of mob violence cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life or the normal state of law and order in the country.” The court issued guidelines to be followed by the state governments, to curb mob-lynching.

Jharkhand has become the fourth state (after Manipur, Rajasthan and West Bengal) to frame a law on the subject. On the subject of crime, the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha passed a law (Shakti Bill) providing for the death penalty in heinous rape and gang-rape cases. Andhra Pradesh had made a similar law in 2019.

And last week, Karnataka’s legislature passed the state’s Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021. It penalises conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force or marriage. Individuals who intend to convert from their faith need to follow a process specified under the Bill. And in case the process is not followed, the conversion will be declared illegal. Another law enacted by the state legislature that was in the news was the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Compliance Act, 2021. Its passing in September had banned online games, and gaming companies had challenged it before the court. Recently, the state’s High Court had reserved its judgement on its legality.

Making laws on betting and gambling comes within the purview of state legislatures. They have taken different legislative approaches regarding online card games and sports fantasy leagues. Some have outright banned these, and others have sought to licence and regulate the activity. The established judicial principle has been that games involving a substantial degree of skill are permitted, and those of chance are not. Earlier this year, the Madras High Court struck down a law passed by the Tamil Nadu legislature that banned online card games. The court, in a damning indictment of lawmaking, said, “More often than not, laws are enacted in this country without adequate research or empirical studies being conducted to assess the impact thereof or the ability of the law to tackle the mischief intended to be eradicated …”

And the court is correct; state legislatures don’t have a stellar record in scrutinising laws. The UP assembly met for approximately 12 hours in its three-day winter session and passed the state’s supplementary budget and multiple laws in that time. The same was the case with Uttarakhand, and this is valid for practically all state legislatures. On average, assemblies don’t meet for more than 35 days in a year. And during this limited period, they make all their laws. Last year, state legislatures enacted approximately 22 laws—some outliers, like Karnataka, passed 61, and the Delhi assembly approved one.

But, irrespective of the number, no state legislature rigorously scrutinised a law before enacting it; 90% of the government’s legislative proposals were brought before and passed by the legislature within five days, and around 59% on the same day. Unlike Parliament, where some bills are referred to parliamentary committees for detailed scrutiny, in state legislatures, committees are virtually non-existent. Across the country, a handful of Bills are scrutinised by committees specially set up for the purpose. In states where committees exist, like Kerala, their functioning does not have the same element of rigour as that of parliamentary committees.

The lack of public attention is one reason why state legislatures can get away with such lackadaisical functioning. The spotlight on the national lawmaking body relegates the 30 state legislatures in the country to the shadows. Each of them makes laws and decides on resource allocation that impacts people living in their states. And a bitter learning from the pandemic is that neglecting state legislatures has disastrous consequences for dealing with national challenges.

Head of outreach PRS Legislative Research. Views are personal