APPEAL FOR REPEAL: LAUNCH OF STATE COMPENDIUMS OF LAWS FOR REPEAL

Amplifying our call for the recognition of 26th November - the Constitution Day of India, as the National Repeal Law Day, we marked the day with the launch of the second edition of our State Compendiums of Laws of Repeal. The launch was accompanied by a panel discussion on ‘Exploring Alternatives: Institutionalisation of Repeal of Laws’ which addressed the need for a legal framework that recognises the immediate exigency to scrap or amend obsolete, redundant and illiberal laws that thwart development, effective governance and freedoms. Our panelists included prominent lawyers, legal scholars, jurists and experts such as Tariq Anwar, Former Union Minister; PK Malhotra, Former Law Secretary, Ministry of Law & Justice; Maneesh Chhibber, Editor, The Print; Satya Prakash, Legal Editor, The Tribune; Hemant Batra, Founder and Chairman, Kaden Boriss Global and Dr Neeti Shikha, National Coordinator, Repeal of Laws initiative, Centre for Civil Society and Associate Professor, Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA.

The compendiums have been published in collaboration with the Symbiosis Law School (SLS), Noida, Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, National Academy of Legal Studies & Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, University of Jammu, and Kaden Boriss Partners our research advisory; and present a rigorously researched repository of laws for repeal in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Jammu & Kashmir.

We had first launched the ‘Repeal of 100 Laws’ Project in 2014 in partnership with National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy,urging the central government to repeal 100 laws identified as flawed, ineffective or redundant. The 100 laws relate largely to business and enterprise regulation, outmoded labour relations, unnecessary taxes and licenses, etc. 23 of these laws have been successfully repealed. In a similar exercise with the Maharashtra state, the government repealed 19 out of 25 proposed laws.

With over 102 participants, the launch of the compendiums and our call for a National Repeal Law Day was covered in 8 media publications, including NDTV, Mangala Times, and The Print.

Repeal 100 Laws Project | Snapshots