Shillong: Union Law Minister, Kiren Rijiju Saturday said the government would be repealing more “archaic laws” over and above the 1500 such laws which were already repealed.
“We have decided to repeal all obsolete and archaic laws from the statute books. Unnecessary laws are a burden for the common man. Laws are meant to be something good for the common people and not to trouble them,” Rijiju told reporters at the sidelines of a ‘Rozgar Mela’, a recruitment drive for 10 lakh personnel, here in Meghalaya.
He added laws are meant to improve people’s way of life and not be a burden and so efforts are on to identify all such laws that were enacted as per the relevance of a bygone era but are now irrelevant.
“We have already repealed more than 1500 obsolete laws and in the coming winter session of the parliament, I am also getting ready to introduce more repealing acts in the parliament,” Rijiju informed.
Asked if the Inner Line Permit (ILP), a British-era regulation designed to preserve the ethnicity and culture of the North Eastern tribals, would be repealed as it’s another British-era law, Rijiju said the ILP has come through as a regulation.
“I am talking of the old laws which are the impediments in the normal life of a common people,” he said.
The ILP, which is still in force in Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh as well as in Manipur, derives from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations, 1873, and entails the issuance of official travel documents issued by the Central Government to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected/restricted area for a limited period.
On the growing demand to implement ILP in Meghalaya, the Union Minister said the issue of its implementation as raised by the local people in Meghalaya has relevance and importance.
“The government has to take a collective decision taking into account the larger interest of everyone. I cannot comment on any specific thing because it requires larger deliberations as well as consultations,” he added.
