*Announcements made in Assembly since 2013 still on papers
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 15: In a testimony of lack of coordination, the General Administration Department is sleeping over the fresh proposal regarding establishment of first ever Law Commission in Jammu and Kashmir during the past several months. In this way, disrespect is being shown towards the repeated announcements made by the Government on the floor of State Legislative Assembly since 2013.
Moreover, the inordinate delay in setting up of Law Commission is creating impediments in the way of review and repeal of large number of laws, which have outlived their utility with the passage of time.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that the announcement regarding establishment of Law Commission of Jammu and Kashmir was first made in the Legislative Assembly by the then Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs during the Budget Session held in March 2013.
This was reiterated by the then Law Minister in the 4th meeting of the Advisory Council of the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms at Union Capital on June 24, 2013. Thereafter, a detailed exercise was initiated in the Law Department and finally the proposal was submitted to the Finance and Planning Departments for concurrence as several posts were required to be created for the Commission.
During the Budget Session of 2014, it was announced by the then Government that establishment of Law Commission was under active consideration and very shortly the State would get the Commission. This was notwithstanding the fact that file in this regard was shuttling between Finance, Law and Planning Departments for quite long time. There was difference of opinion among these departments over the manpower required to be kept at the disposal of Commission.
When the proposal finally reached the State Cabinet on June 4, 2014 it was deferred on the unfounded apprehension that Commission may reconsider Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, despite the fact that Commission would have the powers to review or repeal only those laws which were enacted by the State Legislature.
In the Budget Session held in the month of June 2016, the Law Minister again made announcement in this regard mentioning that almost all the hurdles in the way of establishment of Law Commission were overcome and Cabinet will be approached for nod.
Even in a meeting convened on November 20, 2016 to review the performance of prosecution and investigation wings of the State, the Law Minister stated that Law Commission was all set to be established to review laws that had become redundant and to improve the justice delivery system. However, there was no major headway in translating announcement into reality.
Again during the passing of grants of Law and Justice Department in the Legislative Assembly on January 19, 2017, the Law Minister Abdul Haq Khan stated that Government was shortly going to establish Law Commission.
“Soon after this announcement, the Law Department prepared fresh proposal whereby all the issues raised by the General Administration Department earlier were addressed and accordingly the file was submitted for placement before the Cabinet for approval”, sources said, adding “in the fresh proposal even the concurrence of the Finance and Planning Departments were also appended so as to facilitate the Cabinet in taking decision without any further delay”.
However, the General Administration Department has neither placed the proposal before the Cabinet during the past nearly two months nor returned the file to Law Department for clarifications if any, sources regretted, adding “this is the testimony of lack of coordination between two important departments on a vital issue and utter disrespect to the announcements made in the Assembly since 2013”.
“The inordinate delay in clearance of the proposal is notwithstanding the fact that setting up of Law Commission is imperative to ascertain the viability and applicability of the existing laws in the present times and review/repeal of obsolete ones from the statutes”, sources said while disclosing that at present no such exercise is being conducted for want of Law Commission.
The last review of obsolete and outdated laws was carried out seven years back when on the recommendations of a committee 13 laws that had become obsolete/outdated were repealed under Jammu and Kashmir Obsolete Laws (Repeal) Act of 2010.
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