With the Opposition boycotting the Lok Sabha proceedings, the government on Thursday deferred voting on a bill that seeks to repeal 90 amendment Acts which have become obsolete.
As soon as Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda moved the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2014 for consideration, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu intervened, noting that opposition parties were not in the House. Parties like Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP, CPI(M) and Aam Aadmi Party today boycotted post-lunch proceedings of the House while pressing the demand for a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the controversy surrounding Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.
"If you want to take up the voting (on the bill) tomorrow, there is no problem... If Congress wants to debate (on the bill) there is no problem," Naidu said. "Members of many parties including Shiv Sena, TDP and Akali Dal are there, but since the Opposition is not here, the voting can be taken up tomorrow," he said. As a result, there was only a brief discussion on the proposed legislation that seeks to remove certain Amendment Acts from the statute books as they have outlived their utility. It was introduced by Gowda yesterday.
The move is in tune with Modi's aim of doing away with obsolete and archaic laws, which he believes, create hurdles in governance. While moving the bill for consideration, Gowda said the aim was repeal of certain obsolete laws and correct certain formal defects in two laws. Lot of laws in the statute book create confusion and the "intent of the government is to review and repeal (obsolete) laws", the Minister said and added that as many as 1,291 laws have been repealed so far.
Naidu intervened to say that there are many Acts which are not serving their purpose and those are going to be annulled. He rejected criticism that the government is acting in a hurry. "People's expectations are high. Members can participate in discussion, We can sit till late at night and morning also. Governent is very clear. We want to discuss, debate and decide," he said. Participating in the discussion, BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi said the bill aims at making the arena of legal system free of clutter.
Noting that the government does not want to be impeded by obsolete laws, she said even civil society wants repeal of such laws. Taking a dig at the Congress, which has been alleging that the new government has made many U-turns, Lekhi said this year, "we have to turn around what has been left behind by lethargy of the previous government". Rabindra Kumar Jena (BJD) said scrapping of obsolete law would help expedite the judicial process. He also drew attention to the fact that thousands of cases are pending in courts for many years. B Senguttuvan (AIADMK) said obsolete laws are like "dead wood" and occupy legal space without any use.
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