LS passes bill to scrap 58 archaic laws

Lok Sabha on Monday passed a bill to repeal 58 old laws which the government said are a source of inconvenience to people. Moving The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that after the BJP-led government came to power "we have repealed 1,428 old and archaic Acts".

"Today we are (going to repeal) 58 old Acts," the minister said and noted that from 1950 to 2004, only 1,929 old laws were repealed. Most of these laws, he said, date back to the British era. Participating in the discussion, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that efforts of the government were laudable but expressed concern that "sometimes this government passes a bill in haste and then repeals it".

Demanding that the law on marital rape should be changed, he said the government should understand that it in not about sex but violence. He said that the initiative by the government was good but it should follow it logically, and sought to know what it was doing to educate the police about the changing laws.