1,175 obsolete laws repealed -Governance Now

1,175 obsolete laws repealed

As many as 1,827 laws have been identified as obsolete

GN Bureau | July 29, 2016

#Narendra Modi #Law Commission #Rajya Sabha #obsolete laws

The government continues to focus on the repeal of obsolete laws in an effort to make the legal system more contemporary.

As of May 13, the parliament had repealed 1,175 of 1,827 laws identified as obsolete, according to a question answered in the Rajya Sabha by then law minister DV Sadananda Gowda, reported Mint.

The union law ministry wrote to the Law Commission in June 2014 to seek a report identifying obsolete laws. In August that year, prime minister Narendra Modi set up a two-member panel for performing the same task.

A law commission panel recommended the repeal of 252 laws over four reports submitted from September to November 2014. The two-member committee created by the prime minister’s office identified 1,741 central laws for repeal, out of a total 2,781 Acts.

According to the government, the 1,175 laws already repealed have been by way of four legislation—the Repealing and Amending Act, 2015, the Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2015, the Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Act, 2016 and Repealing and Amending Act, 2016.

In 1998, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had first initiated the process of review and repeal of obsolete laws. It created the Commission on Review of Administrative Law that recommended repeal of 1,382 central laws. Of those, 415 were repealed.

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