Amid opposition by the Congress and the left parties, the lok Sabha on Monday passed a Bill to repeal 90 Amendment Acts which have become redundant. Rejecting the Opposition’s demand to send the Bill to the Standing Committee, law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said the Bill seeks to repeal only Amendment Acts and not the Principal Acts.
During the arguments of the Opposition, which accused the Government of “sabotaging” the committee system of the Parliament, lok Sabha passed the Bill by voice vote. Reacting to the objections of Congress leader Veerappa Moily and CPI(M) MP A Sampath, the law Minister said there was no need to refer it to a standing committee, as the Bill was meant for scrapping Amendment Acts only.
Sampath said the standing committee on law and personnel will examine a similar Bill, introduced in Monsoon Session, on Tuesday, and as a member of that panel he cannot support the passage of this Bill without its examination by the committee. Gowda said since the previous Bill also seeks to repeal four principal acts also, it was referred to the standing committee.
In his reply, the law Minister said he would bring another bill to repeal nearly 700 Appropriation Acts, including Railway Appropriation Acts, which have lost their relevance. He said the move to repeal obsolete and redundant laws is in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of removing unnecessary rules and Acts which hinder governance.
The Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2014 passed in lok Sabha seeks to remove certain Amendment Acts from the statute books as they have outlived their utility. This is the first time since 2001 that such an exercise is being undertaken by the law Ministry.
“The Bill is one of those periodical measures by which enactments which have ceased to be in force or have become obsolete or the retention whereof as separate Act is unnecessary are repealed...,” said the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill. Between 1950, when the Republic came into being, and 2001 over a hundred Acts have been repealed.