ALL MINISTRIES MUST HAVE LEGAL DRAFTSMEN: CHIDAMBARAM

Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 21, 2008 New Delhi, Aug 20 The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday suggested that every Ministry should have a legal draftsman post so that all orders, notifications are vetted by legal draftsmen to the point of precision and pass on the correct meaning that was intended to be conveyed. Inaugurating a post graduate diploma course in drafting of legislation, treaties and agreements at the Indian Law Institute here, Mr Chidambaram underscored the need to have qualified draftsmen in the country and noted that drafting was a very integral part of governance today. “Every time you amend an Act, the amending Act is worse than a parent Act. Every time you amend an Act, you cannot amend one section of the Act. You will have to read the entire Act to see how the amended Act impacts every other (section). It is extremely important that we have very qualified draftsmen,” Mr Chidambaram said. Meanwhile, the Finance Minister also said that the Government had recently launched its first prosecution on money laundering under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. “The first case of money laundering has been filed in a court recently,” Mr Chidambaram said. The Finance Minister used the occasion to highlight various interpretational issues in the provisions of the Income Tax Act, SEZ Act and also the Money Laundering Act to drive home the message that there was a need for good legal draftsmen in the country. Citing the issue of definition of “vacant land” for SEZs, Mr Chidambaram noted that the issue had come to the forefront on account of limitations in the SEZ Act “Special Economic Zone Act defines or refers to vacant land... But what is vacant land, I do not know the answer and the matter has been referred to Law Ministry,” he said.

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