Status Of Law Commission Reports

Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Law & Justice has been allocated the task related to Law Commission as per the Government of India {Allocation of Business} Rules, 1961. So far, there have been 22 Law Commissions have been constituted and 277 reports are available in the public domain.

The Reports of the Law Commission are considered by the Ministry of Law in consultation with the concerned administrative Ministries and are submitted to Parliament from time to time. They are cited in Courts, in academic and public discourses and are acted upon by concerned Government Departments depending on the Government's recommendations. Hence, it is a matter of public interest to review the status of Acceptance/Rejection/ Pendency of all the 277 reports of which 262 reports on different subjects have already been forwarded to the respective Ministries for acceptance or rejection. However, the Law Commission ensures that the widest section of people are consulted in formulating proposals for law reforms. In this process, partnerships are established with professional bodies and academic institutions. Seminars and workshops are organized in different parts of the country to elicit critical opinion on proposed strategies for reform. Once the data and informed views are assembled, the Commission's staff evaluates them and organizes the information for appropriate introduction in the report which is written either by the Member-Secretary or one of the Members or the Chairman of the Commission. It is then subjected to close scrutiny by the full Commission in prolonged meetings. Once the Report and summary are finalized, the Commission may decide to prepare a draft amendment or a new bill which may be appended to its report. Thereafter, the final report is forwarded to the Government.

It is obvious that the success of the Commission's work in law reforms is dependent upon its capacity to assemble the widest possible inputs from the public and concerned interest groups. The Commission is constantly on the look out for strategies to accomplish this goal within the limited resources available to it. In this regard the media plays an important role which the Commission proposes to tap more frequently than before.

As a first step it is pertinent to understand as to how individual Ministries are related to their respective subjects and responsible to evaluate the merits of recommendations mentioned in the Law Commission Reports. Numerically the Reports forwarded by Ministry of Law & Justice to the respective Ministry/Department-wise allocation officially received is mentioned in brackets as under:

Animal Husbandry(1), Bar Council of India(3), Bio Technology(1), Chief Justice of India(1), Commerce & Industry(5), Corporate Affairs(5), Defense(2), Economic Affairs (13), Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities(1), Environment & Forests(4), Expenditure(1), External Affairs(2), Finance(2), Finance – Narcotics Control Bureau(1), Financial Service(1), Food(1), Health & Family Welfare(6), Higher Education(3), Human Resources(1), Home Affairs(65), Industrial Policy & Promotion(1), Information & Broadcasting(4), Judicial Section, Justice (44), Legal Affairs (3), Labour (11), Land Resource (4), Legislative(110), Admin III, Legal Affairs(3), Personnel & Training(9), Petroleum(1), Posts(2), Public Enterprises(2), Revenue(15), Road Transport & Highways(8), School Education & Literacy(1), Shipping(2), Sports(2), Supreme Court(1), Urban Development(2), Women & Child Development(7), Youth Affairs(2)

Hence, a detailed study and evaluation is undertaken as a next project to evaluate the status of various Law Commission Reports to review the status of Implementation or pendency or rejection in the next series of articles under this title. A new series of papers is proposed to be presented based on the correct status of the reports drawing parallel to the connectivity of subjects to that of its Ministries where the Ministry of Law & Justice have already forwarded the reports along with its original recommendations.

The Study would therefore enlighten every citizen as to the merits of recommendations and the ongoing legislative process in making new relevant laws for the country in the best interest of every single citizen in his quest to enhance awareness about the law making process in our democracy.