New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill for repealing or amending 71 obsolete and outdated laws, with Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asserting that the progressive legislation would
contribute to ease of living for citizens.
Replying to a brief discussion on the Repealing and Amending Bill-2025, Meghwal said the proposed legislation was aimed at removing outdated laws, correcting errors that had crept in during the law-making process and removing discriminatory aspects of certain laws.
The bill was passed by a voice vote.
"Under the Narendra Modi government, no discrimination can exist in the statute books," Meghwal said, referring to the Indian Succession Act.
The Minister said that under the Indian Succession Act, 1925, if a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain or Parsi makes a will, it has to be probated, while a similar provision does not apply to any other community.
The Bill seeks to repeal 71 Acts, including The Indian Tramways Act, 1886, the Levy Sugar Price Equalisation Fund Act, 1976, and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (Determination of Conditions of Service of Employees) Act, 1988.
The Bill also seeks to amend four Acts, including the General Clauses Act, 1897, the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to update terminologies for registered posts, and The Indian Succession Act, 1925, to remove the requirement to obtain validation of wills by Courts in certain cases.
The Bill also amends the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to rectify a drafting error.
So far, 1,562 old archaic laws have been repealed. Once the proposed Bill gets Parliament's nod, the total number of laws to be repealed will stand at 1,633.
Since May 2014, the Modi government has been consistently repealing colonial era, archaic and obsolete laws to declutter statute books, Meghwal said.
"These reforms are a step towards liberation from a colonial mindset. Such laws that bore the imprint of colonialism... are being abolished during the tenure of Prime Minister Modi," Meghwal said.
Meghwal said several members had raised issues that were not related to the Bill and he would not respond to them.
Participating in the debate, Congress member Ummeda Ram Beniwal said the Bill does not seem to make any amendments to benefit the people. “This seems aimed more at rectifying the Centre's own legislative adventures,” said Beniwal.
Congress member Dean Kuriakose expressed strong reservations on the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2025.
"While the government claims this is a routine housekeeping exercise to remove obsolete laws, a closer look at the Second Schedule reveals amendments that are not merely formal but have serious substantive implications for the common man and our disaster resilience," he said.
"How, then, can we so casually and lightly pass these amendments without any detailed discussion," he said
BJP's Manoj Tiwari said that through this amendment, they are going to amend or repeal some laws that are from as far back as 1886, and this should have been done within 20 to 25 years of the country's independence.
He said that most of the 71 laws have been incorporated into the main articles after amendment, and once they have been incorporated, there is no need to retain them in their old form.
Tiwari said that only four of these laws are being amended, while the rest are being repealed.
Samajwadi Party's Lalji Verma expressed concern over the introduction and passage of important bills on the same day, saying that the current government has rushed through many laws, which is why the need for such a bill has arisen today.
He alleged, "The government's policy is not clear, and bills are not introduced after due deliberation."
The SP member urged that the bill be sent to a parliamentary committee.
He also questioned why the bills introduced between 2016 and 2023, under the NDA rule, have become irrelevant today.
DMK member K Veeraswamy said that the government is bringing amendments within one or two years of passing the bills. He also demanded that the names of the bills not be in Hindi.
Trinamool Congress's Kalyan Banerjee said that while "we are bringing more and more laws", the number of cases in the courts is increasing. He emphasised the need for judicial reforms, saying that the number of cases in the courts is increasing while the number of judges is not.
BJP's Raju Bista, RLP MP Hanuman Beniwal and Congress member Prashant Padole also participated in the debate. PTI ASK/DP/SKU RT
