Law Commissions' recommendations find no positive response from govt

NEW DELHI: Several recommendations of the various Law Commissions on repealing of obsolete laws, including the Officials Secrets Act, have failed to elicit a positive response from the Government in an exercise over which crores of rupees were spent during the past ten years.

In reply to an application filed by RTI activist Debashish Bhattacharya, the Law ministry said that the recommendations made by the Law Commission may "be accepted or rejected."

"They are recommendations. They may be accepted or rejected. Action on the said recommendations depends on the ministries/departments which are concerned with the subject matter of the recommendations," T K Viswanathan, Secretary in the Law Ministry, said in the reply.

Asked about the enormous amount of tax payers' money spent on recommendations which are not implemented, he pleaded helplessness over the issue saying these could be "accepted or rejected".

Bhattacharya said these recommendations are coming from retired judges of High Court and Supreme Court. "Before retirement, whatever their judgement they delivered was binding. Now after retirement, some administration is sitting on their judgement and judging their stated recommendations is nothing but a mockery of the whole judicial system."

S N P Sinha, Chairman of Bar Council of India, said, "That is why I say that retired judges should not accept post-retirement appointments."

"Because they are appointed by the government for the government, they develop a soft corner for the government and become pro-government. And when their recommendations are against the government it gets rejected," added Sinha.