NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet today gave its nod to a Law Ministry proposal to bring the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2017 to scrap 105 redundant laws which have been clogging the statute books.
The 105 laws, which would be repealed once the bill is passed, include the 2008 amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, The President's Emoluments and Pension Act and the Vice-President's Pension Act.
After the meeting of the Cabinet, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that the two-member committee constituted by the PMO, the Law Commission and the Legislative Department had identified 1824 redundant and obsolete Central Acts for repeal.
Four Acts have so far been enacted to repeal 1175 Central Acts between May, 2014 and August, 2016 by the Parliament. He said out of the 1824 Acts, 227 Acts including Appropriation Acts enacted by Parliament for the states under President's Rule, have been identified for repeal by the respective state governments.
A list of remaining 422 Central Acts was circulated among all the ministries/ departments for their comments on the repeal of Acts pertaining to their respective ministries/departments.
Till date, 73 ministries/departments including Legislative Department have given their comments whereby they have agreed to repeal 105 Acts and disagreed to repeal about 139 Acts.
It is noteworthy that this is not the first time that redundant laws are being scrapped by the current government.
The Narendra Modi government had scrapped 1159 obsolete laws in a period of just two years. Some of them included recruitment of foreigners during pre-Independence period, license to kill and capture wild elephants in certain circumstances and regulating the grant of titles to qualified persons in western medical science.