The law Commission has recommended repeal of 72 obsolete laws in its latest report submitted to Centre on Friday. Several laws recommended for revoking date back to 1838 to 1898 period.
law Commission Chairman Justice AP Shah met law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday and submitted an interim report while stressing the “urgent need” to ensure that legal structures are made responsive to the challenges of changing times.The Commission will undertake a comprehensive study of 261 more archaic laws in order to provide a final report on the obsolete laws to be repealed for being “inconsonant” with present times.
For instance, one of the laws which the Commission has recommended for repeal is an 1836 law titled Bengal District Act. The law has remained on statute book without being applied once. “Keeping such laws on statute books is causing unwarranted burden on the system,” the note by Justice Shah said.
In addition to it, the Commission has recommended a large number of Appropriation Acts as obsolete. “It is common knowledge that Appropriation Acts are intended to operate for a limited period of time... Those Appropriation Acts that are over a decade old can be repealed similar to a ‘sunset clause’ attached to appropriation laws in Australia,” the report said.
The Commission is in the process of identifying such Appropriation Acts, which itself may account for over 600 laws. The panel also identified state laws for repeal that required to be revoked by Parliament.Accepting the report, law Minister said, “Already a bill seeking to repeal 32 such Acts is pending in Parliament. This bill includes amendments to the Representation of the People Act, marriage and divorce laws, Anand Marriage Act and Evidence Act. Two full-fledged legislations - Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1947 and Sugar Undertaking (Taking Over of Management) Act, also find place in the Bill.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government is keen to repeal obsolete laws.” A committee has been constituted by the Centre to identify laws that hamper governance by creating avoidable confusion. Based on the findings of the Committee, the matter will be taken up in the next session of Parliament, he added. This is the first time since 2001 that an exercise has been undertaken by the law Ministry to review and weed out archaic laws.