The monsoon session of Parliament is scheduled to begin from July 20 and many important bills are expected to be tabled and passed during the session. According to reports, nearly 32 bills are expected to be tabled during the monsoon session, which includes important bills like the Data Protection Bill, and Forest Conservation Bill.

The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2022, which was presented by the Ministry of Law and Justice in December last year is also likely to be passed during this session. The bill proposes to repeal 65 laws that are obsolete or that have been made redundant by other laws.

What is The Repealing and Amending Bill of 2022?

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by then-Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju in December 2022. The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2022 contains three schedules.

The First Schedule mentions 24 laws to be repealed, out of which 16 are amending Acts, and two laws are from before 1947.

The Second Schedule lists 41 Appropriation Acts to be repealed out of which 18 are Appropriation Acts for the Railways which span from 2013 to 2017.

Lastly, according to the third schedule of the bill, the words “that Central Government”, and “that Government” shall be substituted in Section 31A, in sub-section (3) of the Factoring Regulation Act, 2011.

Reasons for repealing the laws

Indian laws have always been amended as per the modern developments and laws affected by older traditions have been changed progressively over time.

As society embraces new changes, older and obsolete laws are abandoned along with old and inefficient practices.

According to the Union Law Ministry, when a principal Act is amended, the amendment laws lose relevance and their mention in the statute books as independent laws becomes unnecessary. Therefore, there arises a need to unclog the system.

Earlier, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha former Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had pointed out that 1,486 obsolete and redundant Central Acts have been repealed from May 2014 till date.

Other reasons for the repealing of laws are:

The listed laws have been replaced by other laws and they are yet to be repealed.

There are judgements delivered by the Supreme Court which overlap some of the existing laws, making them redundant.

Further, there are laws which are not in tune with international treaties and conventions signed by India.

Also, the cost of regulating some of the listed laws is more than the benefit of having that law.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Jul 13, 2023 12:28 PM IST