Rajya Sabha passes Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019

Rajya Sabha passed the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019, which repeals 58 old central laws. The Lok Sabha approved it on 29 July. This Bill is one of those periodic measures by which enactments have ceased to be in force or have become obsolete are repealed or by which the formal defects detected in enactments are corrected.

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Moving the bill in the Upper House, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the BJP-led government came to power; it decided to get rid of redundant and absolute laws.

So far, 1,428 archaic central laws have been repealed and about 75 laws — which the Centre drafted for states in view of President rule — have also been struck down, he said.

The current bill aims to repeal 58 old central laws, which have become “irrelevant”. This is being done to ensure minimum legislation and maximum governance, Prasad said, adding that repealing of old laws is a continuous process.

The Repealing and Amending Bill also makes minor amendments to two Acts which relate to substitution of certain words in the Income Tax Act, 1961, and the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017.

Prasad during the discussion also clarified that the list contains a couple of amending Acts.

The Bill passed today repeals Acts, such as The Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976, The Tea (Amendment) Act, 1980, The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2001, The Central Road Fund (Amendment) Act, 2007, and The Central Universities Act, 2009.

The law minister, at the end of the discussion on the Bill, said, “It has made him realize that there should be a robust mechanism for periodic scrutiny. There are certain mechanisms, what we need is to further enforce them.”