On the last day of the Budget Session, lok Sabha on Wednesday passed amendments to Negotiable Instruments Act (NIA) and Whistleblowers’ Protect Act (WPA).
The amendments in the NI Act aimed to make it convenient for the payee in case of cheque-bouncing matters. The amendments in WPA are to prevent of leakages by whistleblowers in the matters affecting security and sovereignty of the country.
The Government amended the NI Act, after SC limited the jurisdiction of the case to the area of the cheque issuing bank. This new bill will now provide scope for payee to file complaint at area of his choice. “To address the difficulties faced by the payee or the lender of the money in filing the case under Section 138 (of the Act), because of which large number of cases are stuck, the jurisdiction for offence has been clearly defined keeping in view the interest of complainants,” said Jayant Sinha, MoS Finance.
BJP MPs too objected the new provisions. BJP MPs SS Ahluwalia, PP Choudhary and RK Singh expressed apprehension that the new legislation could be used by corporates to file cases against their clients in far-off places.
The Minister said chances of such harassment were very rare. We need this law to strengthen the financial system. It will beef up the integrity of the system. We are moving towards a cashless society and we need this,” he said.
The bill to amend the WPA 2011 was passed amid resistance from the Opposition which sought that it be sent to the Standing Committee, with Congress and left members staging a walk-out.
As opposition parties urged the minister to send the WP (Amendment) Bill 2015 to the parliamentary panel, Minister of State for Personnel and Training Jitendra Singh declined the demand saying it had already been sent to the committee once earlier. When Singh said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had also spoken about the Bill earlier, she interjected and said “we wanted a strong Bill”.
Indicating that the Bill may hit a road block in the Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said “we have already seen what happened to the land Acquisition Bill and the GST Bill. To ensure the smooth passage of the Bill, it should be sent to the Standing Committee,” he said.
Shortly before the House adjourned sine dine Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill 2015, the National Waterways Bill 2015 and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill were referred to Standing Committees.