The old order changeth not 

The old order changeth not 

Context

Many redundant laws have been repealed. But much of the deadwood waits to be removed, especially in states.

Government has done its part

• The government has identified around 1,800 laws that require to be removed from the statute books
• In the past three years, Parliament has repealed about 1,200 obsolete and unnecessary laws. This will decongest the statute books and promote ease of governance.

The oldest still remain

• In India Code, in the list of existing statutes, two of the oldest are both from 1836 — the Bengal Indigo Contracts Act and Bengal Districts Act
• Why should these remain on statute books? If 1,200 have been repealed, what about the remaining 600?

Union Statutes

How many statutes are there, statutes meaning those enacted by the Union government? While state-level statutes are also important, those aren’t part of India Code listing.

Desuetude

• Statutes have to be specifically repealed, because in common with common law traditions, India doesn’t have a system of desuetude (In law, desuetude is a doctrine that causes statutes, similar legislation or legalprinciples to lapse and become unenforceable by a long habit of non-enforcement or lapse of time.)
• Unless specifically identified and repealed, statutes are open-ended and remain on the books.

Initiatives from the government

In 2014, there were three complementary initiatives

Ramanujam Committee

First, in September 2014, the PMO set up the Ramanujam Committee to identify central government statutes ready for repeal

• The Ramanujam Committee gave us a database of 2,781 existing Union-level statutes
• Of these, 380 were enacted between 1834 and 1949, before the Constitution came into being.
• The Ramanujam Committee identified 1,741 old statutes that were ready for repeal
• In other words, 63 per cent of central legislation could be repealed without affecting governance adversely

The Question

If the number is 1,741, why did the President say around 1,800 and what has happened to the 1,741?

• The 380 statutes identified by the Ramanujam Committee in the database were enacted between 1834 and 1949, before the Constitution came into being
• These may be “Central” laws, but after the Constitution, the subject matter may have moved to states under the Seventh Schedule
• In at least two cases, I know of (there may be more) in 1976 and 1995, the Supreme Court has held, in such cases, amendment or repeal can only be done by state legislatures
• Accordingly, the Ramanujam Committee identified 83 old statutes that could only be repealed by states. 

Second Initiative

The second was four reports (248 of September 2014, 249 of October 2014, 250 of October 2014 and 251 of November 2014) by the Law Commission on obsolete laws, “warranting immediate repeal”

100 Laws Repeal Project

The third was a 100 Laws Repeal Project by the Centre for Civil Society (CCS), in collaboration with NIPFP and Vidhi Legal Centre

The Math

Factoring all this in, the Law Commission identified 62 statutes that needed to be repealed by the states, in addition to 83 identified by the Ramanujam Committee. 1,741+62=1,803.

I think that’s the reason the President mentioned 1,800 laws

Focus on States

• On eliminating such deadwood at the Centre, there has thus been quite a bit of actual action and focus shifts to states. I should also add there are an identified (post 1977) 144 state appropriation Acts that have to be repealed by the states
• This is in addition to the Ramanujam Committee and Law Commission.

Repeal Law Compendiums

The CCS has now brought out Repeal Law Compendiums for five states — Chhattisgarh (25 statutes), Telangana (26 statutes), Uttar Pradesh (37 statutes), Maharashtra (21 statutes) and Karnataka (24 statutes)

Few States took action

• To the best of my knowledge, only a few states have done something about eliminating such deadwood. I mean recently
• For example, Tamil Nadu did repeal old statutes in 1951 and 1952, but that’s not what I had in mind. Odisha did some repealing in 1976
• In Kerala, 697 statutes were repealed through an ordinance in 2005 and 102 through a Repealing Act in 2016
• In Rajasthan, 248 old statutes were repealed in 2015. (In Rajasthan, there is an even more important reform of rationalising and harmonising the laws that remain, but that’s a different story.)
• In 2016, the Maharashtra Repealing Act junked 64 old statutes
• Gujarat repealed old statutes four times, in 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2006, adding up to 85 statutes
• Karnataka repealed 137 in 2002 and 143 in 2017, while Telangana repealed 18 in 2017. In recent years, that’s a total of seven states 

Conclusion

It’s a bit odd that you don’t readily get a tally of which state has done what in eliminating deadwood. Why aren’t more states interested? Probably inertia.