Government replacing all colonial acts to remove British Raj traces

Atmanirbhar Bharat under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to obliterate the legal remnants of the British colonial rule and has instructed all departments to identify and replace all pre-Independence acts with new laws.

“The Government desires that the entire legal code of India should remain purely Indian and there is a need to remove traces of or references to British ties and subject matter of British Statutes, etc. Thus, existing laws made by legislature of pre-Constitution era should be replaced with laws made by the legislature which is in place post-independence,” the Legislative Department told all government departments on March 23.

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The directive came at a review of pre-Independence laws from the point of view of their suitability and relevance in the present circumstances and amendments, where required, for their simplification. This was a step forward from the government’s recent move to repeal all irrelevant, redundant and obsolete laws, irrespective of their enactment date, in several tranches.

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The first significant step in throwing off the British yoke was the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill which has become an act after the Rajya Sabha passed it on August 2. Under the Act, 42 laws would be changed and 183 provisions revised to minimise the number of cases in the courts, make doing business easier, and keep people out of jail for small offences.

Besides decriminalisation of minor offences -- that is abolishing the use of incarceration as a punishment for minor offences -- the Jan Vishwas Act envisages rationalisation of monetary penalties, depending on the gravity of the offence, bolstering trust-based governance.

Among the British era acts that are being amended under it are the Indian Post Office Act of 1898, Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act of 1937, Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940 and Public Debt Act of 1944.

The second set of laws to replace the colonial acts was introduced by Home Minister Amit Shah on August 11 to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) of 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872. The three bills, simplified and updated, are named Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill; and Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, respectively.

While the move is hailed as a historical push to remove the British hangover, its timing and intent has raised a controversy whether axing these British-era laws were a step towards justice or a political manoeuvre.

An official said there were 45 such pre-Constitution central acts in the Central List, 21 in the State List and 58 in the Concurrent List that required re-enactment or repeal under the new guidelines. Among the Central List are the Petroleum Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act, both of 1934, he said.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

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