Chandigarh, March 26 – Four Bills were passed in Haryana Vidhan Sabha today during the Budget Session. These include Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025, Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2025, Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Bill, 2025 and Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2025. Besides this, Haryana Horticulture Nurseries Bill, 2025 and Aparna institution (Taking Over of Management and Control) Bill, 2025 were also introduced.
Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025
The Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025 was passed to maintain the basic human rights of the dead body in the state of Haryana and for the decent final disposal of the dead body and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.
The scope of the “right to life” contained under Article 21 of the Constitution of India includes the “rights and dignity of the dead”. Under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the right to respect and fair treatment is available not only to the living person but also to his body after his death. Honour and respect for the deceased is the recognition of human dignity. Keeping in view the right and dignity of a dead person, nobody should be allowed to raise any demand or bait for pursuing any demands by way of any protest or agitation by not performing the timely last rites of a dead body. It has become necessary to ensure that no person uses himself uses or allows the use of the dead body for remonstration of any kind.
A legislation namely “The Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2025, to provide for-decent and timely last rites of a dead body and, in case of family members disowning a dead body and thereby depriving it of last rites, performance of last rites by the public authority and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, is required.
Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2025
The Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2025 was passed to establish a framework for ensuring transparency, accountability, integrity of travel agents and to check and curb their illegal and fraudulent activities, safeguarding the interests of the residents of the State of Haryana and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
It has come to notice that innocent and unemployed youth of Haryana are being lured into the trap of illegal migration on a large scale through illegitimate means. Unscrupulous and unregistered travel agents deceive such persons by promising them easy and quick immigration to foreign countries. These agents promise to arrange work visa, work permit, and study visa through offer letters from universities and colleges in foreign countries, but in many cases, they fail to fulfill their promises. In many cases, these agents provide fake offer letters and sometimes even form fake or unrecognized universities or colleges. They charge excessive fees and demand huge amounts of money at different stages. Many times these agents send innocent people to foreign countries illegally and such people are caught by the police of those countries and put behind bars, therefore there is a dire need to curb the illegal activities of such travel agents.
In the larger interest of the public, a law i.e. ‘Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents bill, 2025’ to provide for measures to check and monitor the unlawful and fraudulent activities of travel agents and to provide a mechanism to punish such wrong doers
as per law and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto is required.
Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Bill, 2025
Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Bill, 2025 was passed to provide for the prevention and punishment of public gambling, keeping of common gambling houses, betting in sports or elections, match fixing or spot fixing in sports in the State of Haryana and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Gambling in India is governed by the Public Gambling Act, 1867 which is an old, British era law. The Law Commission of India in its 249th report has termed this law obsolete and recommended that it be its repealed. All state governments do possess power of making their respective legislation as the subject matter falls under the State List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India and many states have enacted their public gambling laws from time to time. The majority of the gambling laws in India are outdated because there has been a sea change in the form of gambling!’ with use of electronic devices in view of advance
Technology and betting syndicates are playing havoc with the finances of the general public as the legislation has not yet been updated. It has become necessary for introducing stringent punishment for those involved in organizing gambling. Therefore, a primary responsibility of regulating betting and gambling rests with the State.
A legislation i.e. ‘the Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Bill, 2025’ to provide for prevention and punishment of public gambling, keeping of common gaming-houses, betting in sports or elections, match fixing or spot fixing in sports and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto or of like nature in the State of Haryana and to achieve the object of saving the public at large from becoming victim of fraud committed by any such activity is required.
Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2025
The Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Amendment Bill, 2025 was passed to amend the Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Act, 2024.
Under the Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Act, 2024, the benefit of security of service is admissible to those contractual employees who have completed at least 5 years of service in a government institution on full-time basis as on the appointed date i.e. August 15, 2024. The following provision has been made in Explanation 2 below Section 3 (ii) of the Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Act, 2024.
For the purpose of calculating the number of years of appointment as per the above provision, a contractual employee who has received remuneration for at least 240 days in a calendar year shall be deemed to have worked for the entire year.
The contractual employees have requested to count 240 days during a year of contractual service instead of calendar year. Otherwise their service of their first calendar year of joining will not be counted if their date of joining is between the months of May and December. Similarly, the current year 2024 upto the cut-off date August 15, 2024 are 227 as a result their contractual service may not be 240 days during these years.
Since the request of contractual persons were genuine and for this purpose the matter was put up in Council of Ministers meeting dated December 28, 2024 for consideration that the condition of 240 days in a calendar year may be amended to 240 days during a period of one year contractual service. The Council of Ministers had approved the proposal.
It was proposed to bring this proposal by means of an Act, however, delaying this until the next session of the Legislative Assembly would to have exacerbated the distress and uncertainty among these employees, leading to potential disruptions in various Government functions.Therefore, Ordinance in this regard was notified on January 31st, 2025 i.e. Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Amendment Ordinance, 2025.
The proposed Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Amendment Act,2025 seeks to reduce distress and uncertainty among these employees, leading to potential disruptions in various Government functions.