The Hindu Business Line : Tasks before new Law Commission

On paper, the Law Commission of India has an ambitious, and even awesome, mandate. It has the authority to recommend the repeal of obsolete laws, simplification of existing ones and, where necessary, propose new enactment to make the rule of law a reality and the Constitutional democracy genuine.

It has the power to keep up its attack on a number of vital fronts: Elimination of delays, speedy clearance of arrears and reduction in costs to secure quick but just and fair disposal of cases; simplification of procedures to rid them of features irrelevant to achieving justice; and improvement of standards of all matters concerned with the administration of justice.

Since Independence, the Government has appointed 18 such Commissions and they have submitted 234 reports which, judged by their titles, extensively cover the law and jurisprudence spectrum. Their output, which averages a report every three months, has been quite commendable. However, other than the fact that 225 of them have been placed before Parliament, the people are not in the know of the precise follow-up action taken on them and the steps that successive Commissions have taken towards implementation.

This is not the only sign of the Government taking its obligation easy. Even though the tenure of the 18th Commission expired on September 1, the Government took no anticipatory action to have the successor Commission in place.

Result: A delay of two months in the setting up of the 19th Commission. Further, the Government has left the Commission dangling without appointing the Chairman and the three members. How long the new Commission will be headless and limbless is anybody’s guess.

People expect the new Commission to bring out a self-contained report on the action taken by the Government on previous reports. It should be bolstered by a standing joint mechanism comprising the Chairman of the Commission and the Law Minister, bringing under periodical, preferably half-yearly, review the course and pace of implementation to help pin down the Government to its responsibility of being accountable to the people, and save the Commission from being reduced to the position of a paper tiger and a sinecure.

Immediate tasks

The immediate and imperative task awaiting the new Commission is to subject the penal code, code of criminal procedure and electoral laws to an intensive and critical scrutiny to make them fearful deterrents against the rampant corruption, misuse of power, subversion of institutions and the wilful flouting of the canons of the rule of law. The new Commission should be unflinching in its fight against these evils. It should ensure that the full might of the law is felt by the evil-doers.

The first step in this direction is to bring the punishments on a par with those of the US for similar offences. In that long-standing democracy, convicted criminals face mandatory sentences extending as long as 200 years.

The next is to provide for a summary procedure akin to court-martial for heinous crimes with only one appeal and the onus of proving innocence on the accused, and requiring the trial to be completed in three months.

The third is to devise a method of enforcing a legal bar against criminals entering legislative forums and the councils of Ministers.

The fourth is to act as the people’s watchdog against vested interests sabotaging efforts to enforce judicial accountability and standards of rectitude.

We, the People, have great expectations from the Commission in regard to stemming the fast-spreading rot in the polity.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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