Hon’ble Supreme Court has, in Vasantlal Maganbhai Sanjanwala Vs. The State of Bombay and others on 25.08.1960 referred, in a different context, to the possibility of legislature, “controlled by a powerful executive”. That possibility is proved to have become a reality in India as demonstrated by the wily bureaucrats when it came to the amendment of Labour laws, especially the Bill No. 66-C of 2009 and the Bill No.375 of 2019.
The manner in which the Cl. 40 (9) had been inserted in the Bill on The Code on Social Security, 2019, (Bill No. 375 of 2019) pending in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) shows how wily the bureaucrats could be, again and again. Identical Clause was introduced in the Bill No. 66-C of 2009 to amend the ESI Act, 1948.
But the then Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour (PSCL) rejected that provision categorically assigning strong reasons. Yet without being aware of the said observations of the PSCL, the provision was made to become law during a pademonium without discussion on 03.05.2010.
Now the Bill No. 375 of 2019 containing the same provision is before the present PSCL. Attempt is made to apprise the PSCL of the history of the case to save the social security structure from being corroded further.
Copy of the letter dated 14.05.2020 sent to the Hon’ble Speaker, House of the People is reproduced hereunder:
======================================================
To
| 1 |
Hon’ble Speaker,
House of the People (Lok Sabha),
17, Parliament House,
New Delhi 110011 |
| 2 |
Mr. Bhartruhan Mahtab,
Hon’ble M.P. & Chairman,
Standing Committee of Parliament on Labour,
South Block,
New Delhi – 110011. |
(Through Mr. Kulvinder Singh, Deputy Secretary, Parliament of India,House of the People. Email: comm.labour-lss@sansad.nic.in)
| Sub: |
Third party participation in running the ESIC hospitals and medical institutions – insertion of Sec. 59 (3) of the ESI Act, 1948 in the year 2010 – Clause 40 (9 ) of the Bill No. 375 of 2019 – bureaucracy deceiving the Parliament – Representation – submitted. |
| Ref: |
1. Bill No. 66-C of 2009 placed before the Lower House of the Parliament as The ESI (Amendment) Bill, 2009 on 30.07.2009.
2. Report dated 09.12.2009 of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour.
3. Record (Minutes) of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha on 03.05.2010.
4. Bill No. 66-C of 2009 as passed by the House of the People on 03.05.2010 titled The ESI (Amendment) Bill, 2010.
5. Hqrs. Letter No. U-11/14/1/20-15-Med.I (ICU) dated 20.04.2018 addressed to M/s Sheel Nursing Home Pvt Ltd, Uttar Pradesh.
6. Draft Code on Social Security circulated in the MOL&E Circular No. Z-13025/13/2015-LRC dated 17.09.2019.
7. The Code on Social Security, 2019, placed as Bill No. 375 of 2019 before the House of the People (Lok Sabha). |
Sir,
I submit that Hon’ble Supreme Court has, in Vasantlal Maganbhai Sanjanwala Vs. The State of Bombay and others on 25.08.1960 referred, in a different context, to the possibility of legislature, “controlled by a powerful executive”. That possibility is proved to have become a reality in India as demonstrated by the bureaucrats, again and again, when it came to the amendment of Labour Laws, especially the Bill No. 66-C of 2009 and the Bill No.375 of 2019, as explained below. In the context, I consider it necessary to invite your kind attention to Clause 40 (9) of the Bill No. 375 of 2019 which is under the consideration and scrutiny of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour at present. The said Clause reads as under:
“The Corporation may also enter into agreement with any local authority, local body or private body for commissioning and running Employees’ State Insurance hospitals through third party participation for providing medical treatment and attendance to insured persons and (where such medical benefit has been extended to their families), to their families.”
2. Identical is the provision under Sec. 59 (3) of the ESI Act, which was inserted through the amendment of the year 2010, vide Bill No. 66-C of 2009:
3. I submit that this provision, i.e., the Sec. 59 (3) of the ESI Act which is in force as on date and the proposed Cl. 40 (9) of the Bill No. 375 of 2019, enable Third Party participation in commissioning and running the ESI hospitals and providing medical treatment and attendance to insurance persons and their families.
4. When the above provision was proposed to be inserted in the ESI Act in 2009, as Sec. 59 (3), vide Clause No. 14 of the Bill No. 66-C of 2019 introduced in the Lok Sabha, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour had examined the issue rejected the proposal outright as could be from Para 113 of its Report presented to the Lok Sabha on 09.12.2009. The Committee did not permit making such an enabling provision in the Bill for commissioning and running these hospitals through third party participation Para 113 said,
“113. The Committee note the proposal of the Government for making a provision for commissioning and running of ESI hospitals through third party participation. The Committee find that ESIC has the required capacity and wherewithal to run hospitals on their own since Government have taken a decision that all new hospitals would be run by ESIC directly. The Committee, do not find any justification in, and therefore outright reject, the contention of the Government that ‘some of the hospitals constructed on the request, and not taken over by the concerned State Governments may be commissioned through third party participation’. The Committee take note of the reply of the Government that there were only three hospitals which had not been taken over by the State Government and out of these three, one, at Chinchwad, had already been commissioned by the ESIC directly and already handed over to the State Government. Another hospital at Bibvewadi has also been commissioned by the State Government. Therefore, the Committee feel that there is no justification on the part of the Government for making such an enabling provision in the Bill for commissioning and running these hospitals through third party participation”.
5. Yet, those observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour had not been taken to the notice of the Members of the Lok Sabha on 03.05.2010 in an appropriate manner that would make them pay attention to the differing views of the Standing Committee. Consequently, the original Clause 14 in the Bill No. 66 of 2009 was made to become law in the form of Sec.59 (3) of the ESI Act. That provision was, thus, the outcome of an unlawful and unjust and undemocratic law-making-process.
6. It becomes clear, from the Minutes of the Parliamentary Proceedings, that the authorities did not want to care for the well-considered observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour and had, therefore, omitted any reference to the abovementioned observation of the Committee in Para 113 of its report. That was why even the already prepared speech of the Hon’ble Minister did not contain any reference, at all, to the Para 113 of the Report containing the objection of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to Clause 14 which was to become Sec. 59 (3) in the Act, later.
7. Besides, the Bill got passed by the Lok Sabha within a time span of nine minutes between 1420 hours and 1429 hours on that day, the 3rd May 2010, when the issue pertaining to Sibu Soren was creating a pandemonium in the House without allowing any meaningful discussion. Significantly, the Hon’ble Minister did not, actually, deliver, in the house, that portion of the speech which is available in Pages 60, 61 & 62 of the Minutes dated 03.05.2010 but had just laid it on the table on the advice of the Hon’ble Deputy Speaker, as could be seen from the live telecast that day.
8. The fact, in essence, is that the Parliament of India had not consciously approved the amendment for and before inserting the aforesaid Sec. 59 (3) in the ESI Act, 1948. It did not examine the observations of the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour dated 09.12.2009. The Legislature had been tricked on 03.05.2010 by the Executive, whose intention was only to observe the formality of getting the Bill declared by the Speaker as passed on the floor of the Lok Sabha. The Executive had not been sincere and honest in giving right and complete information to the Legislature on this issue before asking for its approval.
9. The Executive had, with mala fide intention, placed the Clause 14 of the original Bill No. 66 of 2009, in its original form itself before the Parliament, even after the Parliamentary Standing Committee had objected to the said draft proposal in Para 113 of its Report. It is not the ‘end’ result but the ‘means’ adopted by the Executive to achieve that ‘end’ which makes the said Sec. 59 (3) vulnerable and amenable to judicial scrutiny.
10. While Parliament is not bound by the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, it cannot just ignore the findings of the latter. Parliament has to apply its mind to the observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and record that it was differing from the stand of the said Committee. But in this case the Lok Sabha had simply been oblivious of the vital observations of the Standing Committee in Para 1134 of its report. The Executive did not make any efforts to draw the particular attention of the Parliamentarians to the stand of the Standing Committee to the then proposed Sec. 59 (3) of the ESI Act.
11. What is shocking all the more is that the same provision appeared as follows as Cl. 43 (9) in the draft circulated on 17.09.2019 and withdrawn in the first week of October 2019, at the behest of the PMO to rejig the draft. The present Cl. 40(9) in the Bill on the Code on Social Security, 2019, (Bill No. 375 of 2019) is the identical replica of the same provision, as quoted in Para 1 supra. This Bill has also been referred now to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour without informing that Committee that the same issue had been examined by the earlier Parliamentary Standing Committee and had been rejected by it. The Executive has thus been consistently playing tricks with the Parliamentarians and cheat them as a matter of routine by suppressing facts from the knowledge of the Parliamentarians.
12. I, therefore, request that the members of the present Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour may be informed,specifically, of the contents of Para 113 of the of the Report presented to the Lok Sabha on 09.12.2009 by the earlier Committee, so that the present Committee concerned could take an informed decision.
13. It would also be appropriate for the present Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour to delve a little deeper into the manner in which various instances had taken place during the last decade through that Sec. 59 (3) of the ESI Act, 1948, especially those involving the agency called M/s Sheel Nursing Home Pvt Ltd referred to in the Hqrs. letter dated 20.04.2018, before and for taking decision on the Clause No. 40 (9) of the Bill on Social Security Code, 2019, which is now under the consideration of the said Committee.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Flourishing ESIC 