7 bills passed

The Legislative Assembly on Saturday passed seven bills on the last day of its sitting in the present session, including increasing the minimum value for auction of a pledged pawn from Rs 10 to Rs 2,000. The Karnataka Pawn Brokers (Amendment) Bill 2016 provides that a moneylender cannot auction a pledged pawn for loans below Rs 2,000 if the loanee fails to return the borrowed amount. The moneylender can take possession of the pawn.

Child marriage
The Assembly also passed an amendment bill that provides for a minimum of one year rigorous imprisonment (RI) as punishment for those violating the provisions of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Hitherto the child marriage legislation did not prescribe a minimum punishment for offenders. The minimum punishment of one year RI was incorporated following a recommendation made by a commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Shivaraj Patil. Further, an amendment has also been added to enable any police officer to take cognizance of the offence.

The Assembly passed the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Kshetra Development Authority Bill 2016 that seeks to provide Rs 50 crore to develop Sangolli and Nandagad villages in Belagavi  into an international heritage, cultural and tourist centre, in honour of the 18th Century warrior, Sangolli Rayanna.

The Assembly passed the Karnataka Public Service Commission (Conduct of Business and Additional Functions) (Amendment) Bill 2016 which proposes to bring about reforms in the manner in which interviews are conducted for recruitment of gazetted probationers as suggested by the P C Hota Committee. Opposition  leader Jagadish Shettar and Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa suggested that the entire interview stage be scrapped to usher in transparency in the KPSC examination system. There was no response from Law Minister T B Jayachandra.