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India is finally attempting to shed its complex and archaic laws - the oldest of them dating back to 1836 - that often result in long delays and denial of justice to the common man.
In August, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie told Parliament that the government would scrap 1,382 outdated laws out of a total of 2,500.
Soon enough, the government scrapped 357 outdated laws, some of them over 100 years old.
The decision - in line with the recommendations of a law review commission made way back in 1988 - comes even as 28 million cases are pending in courts, including 10 million criminal cases.
Anachronistic laws dating back to the 19th century have remained in the statute, though the conditions under which they were enacted have changed and may have little relevance to the present day.
The oldest law, the Bengal Indigo Contracts Act, dates back to 1836.
Then there is the Lepers Act of 1898 that allows any police officer to arrest without warrant any person 'who appears to be a pauper leper'.
Section 46 of the Prisons Act of 1894 says whipping is acceptable provided the number of strikes does not exceed 30.
And that's only for starters as the Union as well as state governments have powers to legislate. Each state has 800 to 900 of its own laws, taking the total to a whopping 25,000 to 30,000.
The tendency of government officials to file appeals only adds to the backlog of cases.
Law, Justice and Company Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley told IANS: "As on February 1, 2001 the Supreme Court had 21,936 cases pending. However, the major problem is with the high courts where, in the beginning of 1990, there were 1.9 million cases pending."
"This is a very large and disturbing figure," Jaitley admitted.
The biggest irony of Indian laws, says Supreme Court lawyer Surat Singh, is that 'of the 395 articles in the Indian Constitution, nearly 250 are lifted from the Government of India Act, 1935'.
"That authoritarian act was made by the British to continue their dominance in India. How and why is it still applicable to us?"
In one example of misplaced priorities, the home ministry, in May, asked Indian nationals to report any overnight stay by a foreigner in their premises.
It would mean that parents would have to report to the nearest police station even if their children staying abroad visited them.
At that time, it was resorting to a 1946 legislation whose violation could result in up to five years' imprisonment and a fine.
In September 1998, the Commission on Review of Administrative Laws discovered that were 12 British statutes still in force with titles such as the Admiralty Offenses (Colonial) Act, 1849 and the British Law Ascertainment Act, 1859.
Of the 2,500 Central acts reviewed, the commission recommended that 1,300 be 'urgently repealed'.
While summarising the commission's report in Parliament, Minister of State for Personnel M R Janardhanan had then said: "The repeal has been recommended on the ground that these laws have become irrelevant or dysfunctional."
However, no action was taken on the recommendations.
Shourie's promise to finally act upon it and the repeal of 357 outdated laws may mean less harrowing days ahead for Indians.
Indo-Asian News Service
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