Law Commission recommended repeal of 73 more obsolete statutes

The Law Commission headed by Justice (retd) A P Shah on 3 November 2014 recommended repeal of 73 more obsolete statutes. With this, the total number of such laws increased to 258.

Law commission submitted its third interim report to the Union Law Ministry.  The panel recommended repeal of 258 laws which are clogging the statute books as they have lost their relevance.

It included the one which prescribed punishment for those who dissuaded people from taking part in wars in which the British Empire was engaged. One of the Acts recommended for repeal is the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1938 enacted just before the beginning of World War II.

Earlier, Law Commission submitted its first interim report in September 2014. Commission had recommended repeal of 72 old Acts.

In its second report submitted in October 2014, the panel had suggested that repealing of another 113 laws, including 11 World War II era ordinances.

The recommendation of the Law Commission is part of its ongoing exercise to help the government weed out unwanted statutes.

The Union Law Ministry had mandated the Law Commission to recommend laws that can be repealed. This is the first time since 2001 that such an exercise is being undertaken by the Law Ministry.

Steps taken by the Union Government to weed out obsolete laws
In August 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi constituted a separate committee to identify obsolete laws which hamper governance by creating avoidable confusion.

This committee will examine all Acts recommended for repeal by the Committee on Review of Administrative Laws which was appointed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998. Out of the 1382 Acts recommended by Vajpayee government appointed committee for repeal, only 415 have been repealed so far.

In the Budget Session of Lok Sabha in July 2014, Union Government had introduced Repealing and Amending Bill, 2014 to repeal 32 acts.

The Bill seeks to remove certain Amendment Acts and Principal Acts from the statute books as they have outlived their utility.

The Amendment Acts which are sought to be repealed through the Bill include amendments to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, Special Marriage Act, 1954, Indian Divorce Act, 1869 and Anand Marriage Act, 1909 and Indian Evidence Act, 1872.