NEW DELHI: Accepting the demands of the farmers to repeal the three farm laws could set a bad precedent, averred legal and constitutional experts who pointed out that legislations have never been repealed within days of being passed by Parliament in the history of post-Independent India.
“The same procedure which applies to amendment also applies to repealing laws. A new law has to be brought in for both the purpose. Repealing laws soon after they have been passed by both houses of Parliament would be unprecedented and extremely unusual,” said noted constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap.
He added that many laws have been repealed but only after hundred or two hundred years after being promulgated.
“What has been decided by the elected representatives cannot be undone by a crowd. This is a democracy not a mobocracy and the government will not be worth its salt if it passes a law today and repeals it tomorrow under pressure. It will set a very bad precedent. Instead of parliament making laws, crowd will make laws.”
The agitating farmers have announced that nothing less than the repeal of the three agriculture laws would be acceptable to them.
Former member of the Law Commission, S Sivakumar said the demand of repealing the recently enacted laws should not be considered in isolation. He said that it needs to be looked at in a broader context.
“We cannot think of repealing these laws in isolation. We need to take the broader view. This will set a very bad example. Different sets of people can raise different demands then. Other laws can also be repealed in a similar way then,” Sivakumar said, echoing Kashyap’s observations.
The judiciary also intervenes in instances when provisions of the laws are seen to be affecting the constitutional structure, he said.
“When Parliament is not in session, as is the case at present, an ordinance can be brought to make amendments. The governments have repealed obsolete laws but ordinances are usually not brought for repealing the laws.”
Not surprisingly, a senior law ministry official said the government is already willing to make amendments to address the concerns of the farmers. Additionally, the government could also give further clarifications when it notifies rules for the three laws that were passed in September.
Gandhi statue vandalised in the U.S.
A group of Khalistani separatists has desecrated Mahatma Gandhi’s statue outside the Indian embassy in Washington during a demonstration by Sikh-Americans in support of farmers protesting against the recently enacted agriculture laws in India. Sikhs from in and around Greater Washington DC area, Maryland and Virginia, along with many from other states like New York, New Jersey, on Saturday undertook a car rally to the Indian embassy. However, the peaceful protest was hijacked by the separatist Sikhs. During the protest, many of them jumped on the Gandhi statue and pasted a poster over it.
Senior IPS officer resigns in punjab
Punjab DIG (Prisons) Lakhminder Singh Jakhar resigned from service in support of farmers protesting against three new farm laws. Jakhar said he tendered his resignation on Saturday, but government is yet to accept it. He has also offered to deposit three months of salary of notice period and other arrears as well, so that he can be relieved at the earliest.
‘Tukde Tukde gang will face action’
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said stern action will be taken against the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ trying to take advantage of farm agitation. Prasad said the protesters are saying that they will not withdraw until the laws are withdrawn. “We would like to say that Modi government respects farmers but would like to make it clear that stern action will be taken against ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’.”