LAW IN ABEYANCE

LAW IN ABEYANCE

Subject: Current events/ polity

Context : As farmers reject the government’s proposal to keep the three contentious farm laws in abeyance for 18 months, experts have raised questions over the legislative options the Government has going forward..

Concept :

Can a law can be kept in Abeyance?

• The laws, passed by Parliament in September last year, were notified in the official gazette on September 27 after President Ram NathKovind gave his assent.
• While Parliament can repeal the law, there is no vocabulary in the Constitution or Parliamentary procedure for keeping a law in abeyance.
• While the government cannot stay a law, it can delay its implementation before rules are notified.
• For example, the Citizenship Amendment Act, passed by both Houses in December 2019 was notified in the official gazette in January 2020.
• Parliamentary procedure dictates that the rules for the legislation are to be notified within six months from the date of publication in the gazette. However, the government is yet to notify the rules for the law to be implemented.
• Similarly, the Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988 was not implemented for almost 28 years till the rules were notified in 2016.
• However, once the rules are notified, the only options before the government are to ask the Supreme Court to continue its stay order or take the laws back to Parliament. The Parliament can either amend or repeal the laws.
• The Parliament’s powers to repeal laws come from Article 245 of the Constitution, the provision which empowers it to make laws.