NEW DELHI: Amid opposition by Congress and CPI-M, Lok Sabha today passed a bill to repeal 90 Amendment Acts which have become redundant.
Congress and CPI(M) said by not referring the bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, government was trying to "sabotage" the committee system.
Amid opposition by former Law Minister M Veerappa Moily (Cong) and A Sampath (CPI-M), the House passed the bill by voice vote.
Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said since the bill seeks to repeal only Amendment Acts and not the Principal Acts, there was no need to refer it to a standing committee.
Sampath said the standing committee on law and personnel will examine a similar bill introduced in Monsoon session tomorrow, and as a member of that panel he cannot support the passage of this bill without its examination by the committee.
Gowda said since the previous bill also seeks to repeal four principal acts also, it was referred to the standing committee.
In his reply, the Law Minister said he would bring another bill to repeal nearly 700 Appropriation Acts, including Railway Appropriation ACts, which have lost their relevance.
He said the move to repeal obsolete and redundant laws is in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of removing unnecessary rules and Acts which hinder governance.
The Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2014 passed today seeks to remove certain Amendment Acts from the statute books as they have outlived their utility. This is the first time since 2001 that such an exercise is being undertaken by the Law Ministry.
Through the bill, government also seeks to "rectify" the mistake that had "inadvertently" crept in at the time of the enactment of the Railways (Amendment) Act, 2008 and the Indian Maritime University Act, 2008.
The Bill makes it clear that once the measure becomes an Act, it will not affect any other law in force.
The Amendment Acts which are sought to be repealed include the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Act, 2010, The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2008, The Wakf (Amendment) Act, 2013 and the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012.
"The Bill is one of those periodical measures by which enactments which have ceased to be in force or have become obsolete or the retention whereof as separate Act is unnecessary are repealed...," said the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill.
Between 1950, when the Republic came into being, and 2001 over a hundred Acts have been repealed.