The Lok Sabha today approved amendments to the two bills passed by the Rajya Sabha to repeal 1053 outdated and redundant laws.
The amendments to Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Bill 2015 that seeks to repeal 758 old appropriation acts which have lost relevance and The Repealing and Amending (Third) Bill, 2015 to repeal 295 enactments were passed by the Lok Sabha today by voice vote.
The Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Bill 2015 was earlier passed by the Lok Sabha on May 11, 2015, while the Repealing and Amending (Third) Bill, 2015, was cleared on August 6, 2015.
Both the bills were passed by the Rajya Sabha with certain amendments on April 27.
Appropriation Acts are intended to operate for a limited period of time -- authorising expenditures for the duration of one financial year.
Though these Acts are not usually included in any list of Central Acts, either by the Law Ministry, or elsewhere, these laws still technically remain in the books.
The bill is also in consonance with the recommendations of the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha to have a repeal clause in the Appropriation Acts.
The Legislative Department of the Law Ministry had also proposed that the repeal mechanism in vogue in the United Kingdom to systematically repeal Appropriation Acts usually two sessions in arrears may be followed.
The Repealing and Amending (Third) Bill, 2015 seeks to repeal 295 Acts and make minor amendments to two laws.
The 295 laws that have been listed in the First Schedule of the Bill. This includes over 20 Acts that were passed prior to 1947. Further, around 200 laws are amending Acts, where the changes made by these laws have already been incorporated into the relevant principal Acts.
