A report of an earlier committee, gathering dust for 10 years, has been given a fresh lease of life.

New Delhi: India has its own set of interesting trysts with its antiquated laws. An instance is a public interest litigation to force a five-star hotel to allow passers-by to use its toilet.

The law?

The Sarais Act, a law drafted in colonial times requiring sarais, as inns were called, to provide toilet facilities to the public. Similarly, a law from World War II days requires the Gujarat police to file an entry daily explaining the pamphlets dropped from the air above.

The law, however obsolete, is still in force. Now, the Indian government is set to carry out a review to identify obsolete laws.

A committee appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is charged with examining all laws recommended to be repealed by an earlier Committee on Review of Administrative Laws, appointed by the previous NDA regime in 1998.

The earlier commission, also called the P C Jain Commission, had recommended repealing these laws as these had either become irrelevant or dysfunctional. The commission’s report said that there was a need to study the entire complex of laws, regulations and procedures affecting the quality of life of the poor and disadvantaged sections of society in a focused manner.

That report was lying in limbo over the past 10 years. Only 415 of the 1382 Acts recommended for repeal by that Committee have been repealed so far and the Prime Minister has called for a focused and result-oriented exercise to systematically weed out archaic laws and rules.

Some of the laws include the Ganges Tolls Act 1857 (Specifies tolls to be levied on the boats plying in Ganges), the Coasting Vessels Act 1838 (branding fishing vessels with the name of the place she belongs) and the Lepers Act 1894 (segregation and medical treatment of lepers who are paupers). Other laws include some crafted to handle the situation in the wake of the country’s partition in 1947.

In its report, the committee had pointed to the multiplicity and complexity of laws, rules, regulations and procedures and lack of adequate information about these. It argued that this was a “reason for their misuse by officers and staff, particularly at the cutting-edge level, resulting in delays, harassment and corruption on a massive scale. The cost of all these consequences to the society and to the country's growth is enormous.”

The present government has set a time frame of three months for the committee to put in its report which can be followed up with a comprehensive Bill can be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament.

The Indian government, of course, is prodded by the need to repel laws that make business life easier.

The P C Jain Commission had formulated specific proposals on the regulatory frameworks with an eye on the problems and needs of the user groups, apart from the administrative requirements of efficiency, coordination and economy.