Department of Legislative Affairs examined 78 Notes for the Cabinet/new legislative proposals in consultation with different Ministries/Departments for drafting of Bills/Ordinances for introduction in the Houses of the Parliament/promulgation during the period from 1 st January to 5th December, 2022

1. Background

1.1 Legislative Department acts mainly as a service provider in so far as the legislative business of the Union Government is concerned. It ensures timely processing of legislative proposals of various Ministries/Departments. In this context, Legislative Department plays an important role in assisting the Ministries/Departments of the Government to achieve the policy objectives through legislation.

1.2 Legislative Department does not have any statutory or autonomous body under its control. Besides the main Secretariat. Legislative Department has two wings under it, namely, the Official Languages Wing and Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan, which are responsible for translation of Bills, Ordinances, Rules, Regulations in Hindi; and propagation of Hindi and other Official Languages in the field of law Legislative Department provides assistance to State Governments in translation of Central Laws into the languages mention in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.

2. Important Tasks Undertaken by the Department

During the period from 1 ^stJanuary, 2022 to 5^th December, 2022, this Department has examined 78 Notes for the Cabinet/new legislative proposals in consultation with different Ministries/Departments for drafting of Bills/Ordinances for introduction in the Houses of the Parliament/promulgation. 19 Legislative Bill were forwarded to Parliament for introduction during this period. The list of Bills forwarded to Parliament during this period is as follow:-

Bills forwarded to Parliament for introduction during 01.01.2022 to 28.11.2022

II.             Out of the Bills which were pending before Parliament and those introduced during the

period from 1^st January, 2022 to 28^th November, 2022, 17 Bills have been enacted into Acts. The list of the Acts enacted during this period is as follow:-

Acts enacted

III. Total 5 Regulations have been promulgated by the President under article 240 of the Constitution during the aforesaid period: –

Regulations promulgated

IV. SUBORDINATE LEGISLATION

During the period from l^stJanuary, 2022 to 28^th November. 2022, the number of statutory rules, regulations, orders and notifications scrutinized and vetted by this Department was 2098.

Election Laws and Electoral Reforms

In this regard, various Electoral Rules have been amended during 2022, a gist of which is as follows

1. On the recommendation of the Election Commission of India. the Government vide notification number S.G. 72(E), dated the 06th January, 2022, has amended the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to increase the maximum limit of expenditure by a candidate for Parliamentary Constituency and Assembly Constituency of State/Union territory elections. In respect of larger States/Union territories, it has been increased for Parliamentary Constituency and Assembly Constituency Elections from Rs. 77 Lakh and Rs. 30.8 lakh to Rs. 95 Lakh and Rs. 40 Lakh, respectively, and in respect of smaller States/Union territories, it has been increased for Parliamentary Constituency and Assembly Constituency Elections from Rs. 59.4 Lakh and Rs. 22 lakh to Rs. 75 Lakh and Rs. 28 Lakh, respectively.
2. The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 have been amended vide notification number S.O. 2802(E), dated the 17th June, 2022 which inter-alia, envisages

1. making the statutes gender neutral in line with the avowed policy of gender equality and
   inclusiveness vis-à-vis conduct of our elections;
2. making the process of inclusion/modification/claims/objections of details in electoral roll
   more inclusive and comprehensive by amending forms 1, 2, 2A, 3, 6, 6B, 7, 8, 11, 18, 19.

III.               The Registration of Electros Rules, 1960 have been amended vide notification number

S.O. 5038(E), dated the 26th October, 2022, to ensure multiple qualifying dates for enrolment in the electoral roll, which will expand the voter base and consequently greater participation of eligible voters in the electoral process

3.              Further, in accordance with Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, delimitation

exercise for Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies has been carried out in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the same has been published in the Gazette of India vide notification number S.O. (E) 2223, dated the 20^th May, 2022.

INSTITUTE OF LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING AND REASEARCH (ILDR)

Legislative drafting is a specialised job which involves drafting skills and expertise. Apart from in-depth knowledge of laws and their regular updation, continuous and sustainable efforts are required to enhance the skills of legislative drafting. The Officers of the Central Government, State Governments and Union territory Administrations dealing with legislative proposals and the students of law need training and orientation to develop the aptitude and the skills in legislative drafting.

2. In January, 1989, with a view to increase the availability of trained officers to deal with legislative proposals as also trained Legislative Counsel in the country, the Institute of Legislative Drafting and Research (ILDR) was established as a Wing of the Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice. Since its inception, ILDR has been imparting
   theoretical as well as practical training in Legislative Drafting to the officers of the Central Government /State Governments and Union territories.
3. The ILDR conducts one Basic Course and one Appreciation Course in Legislative
   Drafting every year which are as follows:

1. The Basic Course is of three months’ duration and meant for the middle level officers of the State Governments/Union territories;
2. The Appreciation Course is of fifteen days’ duration for middle level officers of Central Government Ministries/Departments/Attached/Subordinate Offices and Central Public Sector Undertakings;
3. Voluntary Internship Scheme for students of law. This Scheme is intended to motivate students in creating interest in legislative drafting skills and secure knowledge about the nature and working of the Legislative Department. The Voluntary Internship Scheme has been

devised for Law students who are studying in Third Year of Three Year LLB Course or Fourth or Fifth year of Five year LLB course, from four to six weeks. The said scheme has been started from the year 2013. With all Covid — 19 restrictions and social distancing norms the Voluntary Internship Scheme has been revived from July, 2022.

4.                A one month training course in Legislative Drafting was conducted from 16^th August, 2022 to 15^th September, 2022 for all officers of State Government/Union territory Administrations and Officers of State Legislative Assemblies.

India Code Information System (ICIS)

Each year number of legislations (both principal Acts and Amending Acts) are passed by the legislature and it is difficult for judiciary, lawyers as well as citizens to refer relevant and up to date Acts when required. This can be solved by building up an exhaustive repository of all the Acts and Amendments in one place which is open to all. A need has been felt for the development of building up Central repository of all the Acts and their subordinate legislations (made from time to time) at one place which are easily accessible to all stakeholders with a view to make such laws available in up-to-date form when required by public, lawyers, judges, etc., and to avoid private publishers from exploiting the general public with enormous prices by claiming published updated laws as their copyrighted work. In fact, this is the most vital reason to make India Code available over Internet. Keeping all these aspects in view, India Code Information System (ICIS), a one stop digital repository of all the Central and State Legislation including their respective subordinate legislations has been developed with the help of NIC under the guidance of Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department). It is an important step in ensuing legal empowerment of all citizens as well as the object of ONE NATION — ONE PLATFORM. The main object of this system is to provide a one stop repository of all the Acts and Legislations in India in the latest and updated format as and when required by the general public, lawyers, judges and all other interested parties. Till date, Central Acts from the years 1836 to 2022 total 888 Central Acts and from the year 1834 to 2020, 3375 Repeal Acts have been updated and uploaded on the India Code Portal for general public.

Vidhi Sahitya Prakashan

In the year 1958, the Committee of Parliament on Official Languages recommended that arrangements be made to bring out authorised translation of important judgements of the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts and this work could be entrusted to a Central Office under the supervision of Law Department. Thereafter, on the recommendations of the Hindi Advisory Committee, a “Journal Wing” was set up in the Legislative Department in the year 1968 with the object of promoting the use of Hindi in the legal field which was subsequently redesignated as “VIDHI SAHITYA PRAKASHAN”.