Bills to amend Municipalities, GNLU Acts passed; varsity to set up campus in Silvassa

“Much of the groundwork has been done for the first campus of GNLU outside of Gujarat, in Silvassa”, the source said.

As per the original Act of 2003, the university could only set up a campus in Gujarat, whose section 3 (1) has now been amended to say, “Provided that the General Council may, from time to time, through resolution establish additional campus within or outside the State of Gujarat under the control of the University.The General Council shall have all the powers to govern, administer and manage such additional campus so established as per the provisions of this act”.

Sources said this would be the first campus by a national university in the UT.

State education minister Jitu Vaghani could not be reached for comment.

As far as the Municipalities Act goes, the existing provisions of the Municipalities Act—Sections 47 and 47A—empower the state government to prescribe the rules or recruitment and conditions of various posts. According to the existing provisions of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, if the state government intends to make rules for the recruitment and conditions of service, the objections and suggestions from all persons likely to be affected thereby are required to be invited under the provision of sub-section (3) of Section 277 of the Act.

However, the amended Act proposes to exempt provisions of Sections 47 and 47A from the purview of sub-section (3) of Section 277 so that the previous publication of the rules is not required.

Quoting Minister of State for Urban Development Vinod Moradia, an official release stated that because of the provision of previous publication of the rules, the entire process was getting prolonged and hampered the development of the nagarpalikas.

Opposition Congress supported the Bill following which it was passed unanimously. The Gujarat National Law University (Amendment Bill) as well the Gujarat Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Bill, 2022, to repeal the Gujarat Appropriation Act, 1980, and the Gujarat Appropriation (Vote on Account) Act, 1980, while considering recommendations of the Ramanujan Committee and reports of Law Commission of India on “obsolete laws” were also unanimously passed.