Over 1,000 archaic laws to be taken off the books

The Centre has notified The Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Act, 2016 and The Repealing and Amending Act, 2016, to erase obsolete laws lying unnecessarily on the statute-book.

The two legislations scrapping as many as 1,053 outdated laws have got the Presidential assent on Friday, according to an official order. The Appropriation Acts will repeal 758 old appropriation acts which have lost relevance and the another law will do away with 295 enactments. Rajya Sabha had on April 27 passed these two bills. They were passed by Lok Sabha in May last year.

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 Centre has identified 1,741 obsolete laws for repealing.

This is the first time since 2001 that an exercise has been undertaken to repeal outdated laws which hinder efficient governance. Between 1950 and 2001, over 100 Acts were repealed.

The Repealing and Amending Act has also brought in minor changes in two existing laws--the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and the Governors (Emoluments, Allowances and Privileges) Amendment Act, 2014.