Deeksha Sood –
The Ministry of Justice has identified 52 laws, including the Code of Civil Procedure, The Indian Succession law, The Hindu Marriage law, The 1937 Muslim Individual Law (Shariah) Application Law and the Indian Contract Law.
This move is made with an idea of organising statutory books. There are a number of old and redundant laws and regulations that have been irrelevant for years.
Moreover many lead to criminal charges clogging Courts when fines are sufficient.
This clean up move is identified as the key areas of focus by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was also part of the BJP’s election promise.
Prime Minister Modi said that if the party came to power his Government would abolish 10 obsolete or archaic laws for all the laws it would pass.
Officials stated that the government would push the amendment in line with the ministry’s response during the upcoming parliamentary session.
It has reached out to all ministries and departments, seeking their views on the relevance of these Acts and converting criminal liabilities under them to civil offence.
“These Acts are under review as to their object and relevance in the present-day context.“, the law ministry said in a recent communication.
The 52 Acts identified by the ministry also include Power of Attorney Act 1882, Official Trustees Act, Commercial Documents Evidence Act, 1938, the special marriage act 1954, Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the Limitation Act etc.
Already over 1200 archaic Acts that had lost relevance and decriminalised many others has been removed from the statute by the government.
Many company related crimes have been decriminalised and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in a budget speech that more legislation will be taken up in future for such decriminalisation.