Amendments made in Transfer of Property Act, 1882 Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and Registration Act, 1908 by the State Legislature can be assented by the President of India not State Governor-Advocate
Recently Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann thanked the State Governor BL Purohit for giving his assent to 3 Amendment Bills passed by Punjab Vidhan Sabha
Chandigarh (sur saanjh.com bureau), 9 January:
This past Sunday 7 January 2024, Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister of Punjab in one of his X-post (formerly Twitter) expressed his gratitude (thanks) to the Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit for granting his assent to the three Bills as passed by the Punjab Legislative Assembly viz. Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 Transfer of Property(Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Indian Stamps (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023. He also hoped that all other pro-Punjab Bills would also receive assent from the Governor soon.
Meanwhile, an Advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court, Hemant Kumar, seriously wondered and expressed utter surprise over if the State Governor is actually and indeed legally (read constitutionally) competent to accord consent i.e. grant his assent to Amendment Bill(s) passed by the State Legislature which pertain to amendments (read state specific) in any Central Law i.e. any Act enacted by the Parliament of India on subjects in the Concurrent List of Constitution of India or else any corresponding pre-Independence Law(s) i.e. Act(s) promulgated (which were in force) during the then British (colonial) era and such Laws post-Independence were adopted via a Constitution Order No. 4 titled Adaptation of Laws Order, 1950 with effect from 26 January 1950 ( read Transfer of Property Act, 1882, Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and Registration Act, 1908).
Hemant in his argument quoted Article 254(2) of Constitution of India which stipulates that where a law made by the Legislature of a State with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier law made by Parliament or an existing law with respect to that matter, then, the law so made by the Legislature of such State shall, if it has been reserved for the consideration of the President and has received his assent, prevail in that State.
In view of the above, the Advocate legally opined that the Registration (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 Transfer of Property(Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Indian Stamps (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2023 after being passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha should have been then sent by the Punjab Governor to the President of India for his assent or otherwise under Article 200 read with Article 254(2) and Article 201 of the Constitution of India.
