Hyderabad: The Law Commission has found that 72 old laws are fit for repeal. The Commission which has undertaken the project ‘Obsolete Laws: Warranting Immediate Repeal’ identified about 700 laws which are now irrelevant.
The Commission has decided to recommend to the Centre as well as states to repeal the irrelevant laws in a phased manner after study.
The Commission has recommended in its first report under the project that the Centre should repeal 72 laws including the Government Seal Act of 1862, Wastelands (Claims) Act of 1863, Converts Marriage Dissolution Act of 1866, Foreign Recruiting Act of 1874, Elephants Preservation Act of 1879, Dekkhan Agri-culturists Relief Act of 1879, Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act of 1911, Wild Birds and Animals Protection Act of 1912, Sheriffs T Fees Act of 1852 and 63 other laws. The Dekkhan Agrculturists’ Relief Act was enacted to provide succour to indebted agriculturists in erstwhile Hyderabad state.
The Commission found that 253 laws despite having been recommended for repeal still exist in statute books. It also noticed that 34 laws which were repealed still figure on the government website. The panel noticed that a large number of Appropriation Acts which have lost their meaning were still in statute books.
The panel recommended that a practice like the one in the United Kingdom of including a repeal clause in the Appropriation Act every year would serve a useful purpose, without necessitating introduction of new laws.
