Repeal 72 archaic laws: Law panel to government

On 12^th September 2014, Law Commission submitted a list of 72 laws to the government that need to be repealed immediately.

Law Commission chairman Justice A P Shah, submitted this report to law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Justice Shah said the commission was studying all Acts and would make a comprehensive recommendation on laws that need amendments. This report will be prepared once obsolete 

laws are deleted from the statute books. 

The report said that, 72 laws needed to be repealed as the laws in question were outdated and were no longer needed to govern that subject.

In some cases, the purpose of these laws has been fulfilled and they were no longer needed and newer laws or regulations had been brought in to govern the subject. 

The commission said it had earlier recommended repeal of 253 such laws, but they still 

existed on the statute books. The commission, while pursuing the study, also found that 34 repealed laws still figured on the government website. The government has been asked to remove them and update its websites.

Among the list of 72 laws:

• The oldest is the Bengal Districts Act of 1836 that provides for creation of districts.
• Another Act of the same time, stipulates that only residents of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal can be directors of the Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association and that the association can sell its property only to the East India Company. (Neither the warehouse nor the East India Company is in existence, but the Act continues on the statute books) 
• The Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association Act of 1838, recommended for repeal, was enacted to stipulate that only residents of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal could be directors of the Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association and that the association could sell its property only to the East India Company. "The East India Company is no longer in existence, and the Presidency of Fort William has also ceased to exist as an administrative unit. Consequently, the Act is now redundant," the report said. 
• The Police (Incitement to Disaffection) Act of 1922 was introduced by the colonial government as a curb on nationalist activities and made it an offence to spread disaffection among the police. The Act is loosely worded and prone to misuse. Also, the Act does not describe what amounts to 'disaffection'.