New Delhi: On Monday, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice released a notification announcing the establishment of the 23rd Law Commission of India for a period of three years.
“The sanction of the President is hereby accorded to the constitution of the Twenty-third Law Commission of India for a period of three years from 01st September, 2024 to 31st August, 2027,” the notification reads.
Notably, there is no law or statute governing the functioning of the Law Commission. It is notified through an executive order or notification because it’s not a statutory body like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) or the Lokpal. Instead, it performs a consultative role.
In independent India, the first Law Commission was established in 1955 with its chairman being the then Attorney General M.C.Setalvad.
Apart from carrying out research in law and making recommendations to the government, the Law Commission takes up various subjects on references made by the Department of Legal Affairs, the Supreme Court and the High Courts and submits reports.
The 22nd Law Commission had been functioning without a chairperson since March after its chairperson Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi resigned from the post following his appointment as a judicial member of the Lokpal.
ThePrint looks at the history of the Law Commission, its composition and other related activities in its functioning as an advisory body to the Ministry of Law and Justice.
What the notification says
The notification states that the 23rd Law Commission will comprise of a full-time Chairperson; four full-time members (including Member-Secretary); Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs as an ex-officio member; secretary, legislative department as an ex-officio member; and not more than five part-time members.
The Commission will also have a full-time chairperson or members. These can be serving judges of the Supreme Court or High Courts who “shall perform their functions on a whole-time basis up to the date of retirement, from their respective courts or expiry of the Commission’s term, whichever is earlier.
The time spent by them in the performance of such functions as chairperson/member of the Commission shall be treated as “actual service,” the notification states. However, no additional remuneration apart from the salary, as a judge of the Supreme Court or High Court, as the case may be, shall be admissible for performing their functions and duties. Even the notifications setting up the 21st and 22nd Law Commissions included this provision.
Besides this, the notification also lays out the committee’s scope of work, or the “terms of reference.” These include identifying laws that are obsolete or relevant and can be immediately repealed, creating a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for periodically reviewing existing laws, identifying laws that aren’t in harmony with the economic needs of the time, considering references made to them by ministries and departments, and even revising the Central Acts of general importance to simplify them and remove anomalies, ambiguities, or inequities.
Why & how the first Law Commission was set up
Although law reform was a continuous process in India, it was the Charter Act, 1833, enacted by the British Parliament, that vested legislative power for the first time in a single authority, namely, the Governor-General in Council. In turn, the Governor-General in Council made laws from 1834 to 1920.
The Charter Act also enabled the Governor-General in Council to appoint a Commission, called the Law Commission of India, to inquire into the nature and operation of all laws, written or customary or in force in any part of British India, to which any resident of India was subject, prepare a report, and advise the Legislative Council on legislative matters.
“Initially, the Law Commissions were empowered to recommend legislative reforms with a view to consolidating and codifying branches of law where the Government felt the need for it. During the British period, four Law Commissions were constituted to prepare drafts on various subjects of legislation for codification. The First Law Commission with Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay as the First Law Member and three other members drafted the Penal Code in 1837, the Limitation Law in 1842 and the Scheme of Pleading and Procedure in 1848,” the Law Commission’s official website says.
Comparison with the previous Law Commission
As per the latest notification, the term of the erstwhile 22nd Law Commission ended on September 1. Notably, the Commission was chaired by former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Rituraj Awasthi, who resigned from office in March after a 17-month tenure.
Although the tenure of the 22nd Law Commission was extended in February last year, its report on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is still incomplete. Similarly, its report on simultaneous elections was also delayed. Originally, the panel was constituted for a period of three years on 1 February, 2020.
Justice Awasthi’s departure impacted the submission of key reports, as reports cannot be submitted in the absence of a chairperson.
With the new Commission in place, work on the UCC is likely to gain momentum under the Modi 3.0 government. The UCC is the last of the BJP’s central planks which remains to be implemented by its government.
(Edited by Tony Rai)