U.P. plans to repeal more than 100 British-era ‘obsolete’ laws

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to repeal roughly 140 ‘obsolete’ British-era laws, some of which are over 100 years old related to at least 40 departments of the State.

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to repeal roughly 140 ‘obsolete’ British-era laws, some of which are over 100 years old related to at least 40 departments of the State.

The Legislative Department has sought suggestions from the State Law Commission and initiated correspondence with the departments, saying if the law has to be abolished, consent needs to be given for that, while concrete reasons will have to be given if the department does not want the law to be repealed, The Hindu learned.

The Hindu reached out to the Legislative Department, including Principal Secretary Atul Srivastava, but no response was received till the time of going to press. The argument behind the whole exercise is that most of these laws lost relevance in the wake of new legal provisions enacted over the years.

The Union government has also initiated Bills in Parliament from time to time repealing archaic and obsolete laws with around 2,000 obsolete laws being abolished since 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power. The 20th Law Commission of India, then headed by Justice A.P. Shah, also suggested to do away with such British-era laws not in use for smooth governance.