Legislative assembly re-passes 2 controversial bills despite guv’s objections

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly on Monday re-passed two contentious legislations — the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Himachal Pradesh Amendment Bill, 2025—without making any changes. Both Bills were returned by governor Shiv Pratap Shukla with objections, citing them as unjustified and unreasonable.The Municipal Corporation Amendment Bill seeks to extend the term of Shimla mayor Surinder Chauhan and deputy mayor Uma Kaushal from 2.5 years to 5 years. It was initially passed by the legislative assembly on Dec 4, 2025, and sent for the governor's assent. The matter is also sub judice before the high court and would now come up for hearing on Feb 24. The public interest litigation has challenged state govt's move, contending that as per the roster system, a woman councillor was eligible to become Shimla mayor after Nov 15, 2025, and the ordinance brought by the state govt purposely defeated the rights of the women councillors.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Himachal Pradesh Amendment Bill, 2025, passed by the legislative assembly on De 3, 2025, proposed replacing the chief justice of the high court with the chief secretary as the chairperson of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) selection committee. The move came after the previous RERA selection committee, headed by chief justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia, declined to recommend then chief secretary Prabodh Saxena for the RERA chairperson post, as he was facing prosecution in the INX Media corruption case, which involved foreign exchange clearance granted to INX Media during P Chidambaram's tenure as Union finance minister. The CBI also submitted a chargesheet in the case. MSID:: 128427149 413 |