August 2, 2019
Subhasish Chakraborty speaks on The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019
FULL TRANSCRIPT
I have 3 points to make about the Repealing and Amending Bill which the Government has to consider. Legislation is an important matter through which people can exercise their fundamental rights and get protection from the Bills.
1. Hasty legislation: The Government, through this Bill, has proved that it passes legislation one after another without much Parliamentary scrutiny and discussion. In this Session, 20 Bills have been passed by both the Houses and made into Acts, with only 3 of them going through Parliamentary scrutiny. With this Repealing and Amending Bill too, nearly half the Bills being repealed out of the 68 Acts have been formed after 2014. Also, 3 Bills from 2017 will be repealed. This proves that the Government has a history of passing legislation hastily, many only to be repealed a few years later. Sir,a proverb goes that haste makes waste.
2. Repealing laws: Also, there are 3 laws dating back to the mid and late 1800s which are being repealed. But has the Government scrutinised archaic colonial laws like the Indian Penal Code of 1860, which still has, among other things, regressive ideas promoting patriarchy, necessitating the upheaval of the whole Code altogether? It is to be noted that the fundamental rights of the citizens are being curtailed today in many instances, due to the incidence of archaic laws which were given legitimacy by the British to rule over the India populace.
3. Creating awareness: Also, repealing the Bills has been a good step, but the Government needs to sensitize the people and public organizations about the tenets of the laws being repealed, so that they are armed with information about the new systems in place when it comes to affecting policy.
Thank you.
