Gujarat throws out 44 obselete laws

Mehta informed the House that with the first phase of repealing the hackneyed Acts being over, the government proposed to amend certain other Acts in the second phase and an exercise of enacting even new Acts replacing outdated ones would be taken up in the third phase.

Among the 44 obsolete Acts repealed included the Bombay Maleki Tenure Abolition Act (1949), The Bombay Watwa Vazifdari Rights Abolition Act (1950), The Gujarat Devasthan Inams Abolition Act, The Bombay Village Sanitation Act, The Bombay Opium Smoking Act (1936), The Gujarat Smoke-nuisance Act and The Saurashtra Agricultural Debtors’ Relief Act.

The minister said the government had decided to do away with the 44 Acts, for they had been framed by the British rulers about five decades ago and had no relevance in the present circumstances. A provision of the saving clause has been made in the Bill in case some legal hitch crops up in the wake of the repeal of the 44 outdated Acts.

He said as many as 650 Central Acts and 240 State Acts, including 140 legislations enacted by the erstwhile Bombay, Baroda and Saurashtra States, were in exisitence in Gujarat. The government was committed to simplifying and amending the complex laws to ensure smooth and speedy justice for the commonman, he said.

Earlier participating in the debate on the Bill, senior BJP member Purshottam Rupala said there was still scope for repealing more Acts, since they had already been out of use for long. He suggested that the State Law Commission be asked to conduct a study on these lines.