Patna, Dec. 2: The Bihar Lokayukta Bill, 2011, has clea-red the first hurdle in its journey to become an Act. Governor Devanand Konwar has made his recommendation to the bill for it to be tabled in the ongoing winter session of the state legislature.

Being a money bill — it talks of charging the salaries of Lokayukta on the consolidated fund of the state [Art 199 (1) (e)] — the Lokayukta draft needed governor’s recommendation before being tabled in the state legislature.

According to Article 207 of the Indian constitution, any money bill cannot be introduced in the state legislature without the recommendation of the governor.

The bill got cabinet approval on Thursday evening and immediately after this approval, necessary formalities of attaching a certificate that it was a money bill were completed and then it was sent to the governor’s office for the necessary recommendation.

“The governor spent around three hours studying the bill document and then made the recommendation. The bill document, along with the governor’s recommendation, was sent to the state government late on Thursday night. Now it is up to the state government to decide when would it table the bill,” a Raj Bhavan source told The Telegraph today.

With four working days (December 5 to 9) left in the winter session of the state legislature, it would be interesting to see when would the state government table the Bill for approval.