Bill to repeal over 60 old laws, rectify error in one introduced in Lok Sabha

A bill which seeks to repeal over 60 obsolete laws, including one enacted 137 years ago, was introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2022 also aims to correct a "patent error" in another law by replacing certain words.

Piloted by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, the bill is one of the periodical measures by which enactments which have ceased to be in force, or have become obsolete or the retention as separate Act is unnecessary, are repealed.

Such bills also correct defects which are detected in laws.

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The bill proposes to repeal the Land Acquisition (Mines) Act, 1885.

It also seeks to repeal the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950. Under the law, "Whoever is found or is proved to have been in possession of any quantity of telegraph wires shall unless he proves that the telegraph wires came into his possession lawfully, be punishable, for the first offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine ..."

The bill also seeks to repeal certain Appropriation Acts passed by Parliament in the recent past.

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Once the principal Act is amended, the amendment laws lose relevance. Their presence in the statute books as independent laws becomes unnecessary and they only clog the system. According to the third schedule of the bill, in section 31A, in sub-section (3), for the words "that Central Government", the words "that Government" will be substituted in The Factoring Regulation Act, 2011.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha last week, Rijiju had noted that 1,486 obsolete and redundant Central Acts have been repealed from May, 2014 till date. Besides, 76 Central Acts relating to State subject have also been repealed by the state legislature concerned.