New Delhi: Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to repeal 76 redundant and obsolete laws with the government saying the move is part of its continuing efforts to improve the ease of living and doing business.
The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2023 was cleared in the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote.
Lok Sabha had cleared the legislation on July 27 this year.
In December last year, the government introduced the Repealing and Amending Bill to cull 65 old laws. But the bill could not come up for discussion in subsequent sessions.
The government later moved an amendment to add 11 more laws to the list, bringing the total to 76 laws.
The bill proposes to repeal outdated laws like the Land Acquisition (Mines) Act, 1885 and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950.
The bill also seeks to repeal certain Appropriation Acts passed by Parliament in the recent past.
Replying to the debate, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Modi government since coming to power in 2014 has repealed 1,486 defunct laws in order to improve ease of living for common man.
With the 76 more added, the list now stands at 1,562 such laws, he added.
“Modi Ji has a principle of minimum government maximum governance, we are moving swiftly in this direction. It will improve ease of doing business and living,” Meghwal said.
He noted that no such initiative was undertaken by the previous government.
During the UPA rule between 2004-2014, not a single law was repealed, Meghwal said.
He also said that a sunset clause is under consideration of the government.
The law minister was responding to DMK member P Wilson who had stated that as far as repealing bills are concerned there should be a sunset clause in all the bills.
GVL Narasimha Rao of the BJP termed the repealing of the obsolete laws as a “massive clean-up” exercise taken by the Modi government.
Mahesh Jethmalani of BJP termed the bill as a case of legal house cleaning. “Our legal godown had become overfull with laws that are obsolete…so there was a need for legal house cleaning,” he said.
Supporting the bill, Muzibulla Khan of BJD noted that there is a need to look at existing laws so that justice is delivered to the public in a swift manner.
KR Suresh Reddy of BRS said dynamism doesn’t mean just removing outdated laws, it also means bringing in legislation which is beneficial for the general people.
Naresh Bansal (BJP), M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Masthan Rao Beeda of YSRCP also spoke during the discussion.
