Bill to repeal 90 Amendment Acts gets LS nod

Amid opposition by Congress and CPI-M, Lok Sabha today passed a bill to repeal 90 Amendment Acts which have become redundant.
Congress and CPI(M) said by not referring the bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, government was trying to "sabotage" the committee system.
Amid opposition by former Law Minister M Veerappa Moily (Cong) and A Sampath (CPI-M), the House passed the bill by voice vote.
Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said since the bill seeks to repeal only Amendment Acts and not the Principal Acts, there was no need to refer it to a standing committee.
Sampath said the standing committee on law and personnel will examine a similar bill introduced in Monsoon session tomorrow, and as a member of that panel he cannot support the passage of this bill without its examination by the committee.

Gowda said since the previous bill also seeks to repeal four principal acts also, it was referred to the standing committee.

In his reply, the Law Minister said he would bring another bill to repeal nearly 700 Appropriation Acts, including Railway Appropriation ACts, which have lost their relevance.
He said the move to repeal obsolete and redundant laws is in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of removing unnecessary rules and Acts which hinder governance.
The Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2014 passed today seeks to remove certain Amendment Acts from the statute books as they have outlived their utility.

This is the first time since 2001 that such an exercise is being undertaken by the Law Ministry.