A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his intention to remove one redundant law every day, the Law and Communications Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, announced that the Government would bring a Bill during the Winter Session of Parliament to repeal 287 amending Acts and over 700 Appropriation Bills.
“We will be able to repeal a handsome number of laws. Any legislation passed by Parliament remains a valid legal instrument unless repealed along with the consequences,” Prasad told reporters here on Monday. In the last session, the Government introduced a Bill to repeal 36 Acts, which include 32 amending Acts and four principal Acts.
Amendments“When you repeal an amending Act, you have to make a proviso that all actions taken under the amending Act will deemed to have also been the same. Therefore, it is not redundant by its own force,” the Minister said.
Prasad also said the Law Commission, in its interim report, had identified 72 Acts for repeal. Of these, 35 are Central Acts, for which the Centre can straightaway move a Bill for repeal. There are 22 State Acts, which need to be referred to the States, as per Articles 245 and 246 of the Constitution. The Government has taken steps to repeal the remaining 16 Acts in consultation with the States, he added.
The Law Commission is likely to submit its final report by mid-October, identifying more than 50 laws to be repealed. Apart from that, a PM’s committee is also looking into the matter. In August, Modi had approved a committee under the Chairmanship of R Ramanujam, a Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, and had asked it to submit a report within three months.
The effort is to bring a comprehensive Bill, based on the recommendations of the committee, during the Winter Session of Parliament. The panel will examine all the Acts recommended to be repealed by a previous Committee on Review of Administrative Laws. The previous panel, set up in 1999, recommended the repeal of 1,328 Acts. However, only 415 have been repealed so far. The Committee will also examine Acts and Rules that may have become obsolete in the past 10-15 years.
On the Appropriation Acts, Prasad said that in India there was no tradition of repealing these. “Once a Bill is approved, we withdraw money, and that ends its usefulness. Take the example of the Finance Bill. Once it is approved and the tax rates revised, that is the end of its usefulness.
Legal viewsWe are seeking to draw from British Parliament, where they retain the Appropriation Bill for 3-4 years. I have asked the department to stay in touch with the Finance Ministry and take appropriate legal views on that,” he added.
An Appropriation Bill is presented in the Lok Sabha to seek withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund of India. Once approved, the Government manages to spend as prescribed in the Budget.