The first of these commissions, established in 1834 by the Charter Act 1833 and chaired by Lord Macaulay, recommended the codification of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Subsequently, in 1853, 1861 and 1879, the Second, Third and Fourth Legal Commissions were established, which contributed to enriching the collection of Indian laws over a period of fifty years. Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju announced on Twitter the appointment of retired Chief Justice Rituraj Awasthi as chairman of the commission. Some of the other reports presented by the Commission dealt with various topics such as human DNA profiling, hate speech, contempt of court review, mandatory marriage registration, BCCI, sports betting, etc. The Law Commission of India, although an ad hoc body, plays a key role in India`s legislative reform. [24] Their role was both advisory and critical of government policy. [ref. needed] The Supreme Court of India and academia have recognized the Commission`s innovative and forward-looking approach. [ref. needed] In a number of decisions, the Supreme Court has referred to the work of the Commission and followed its recommendations. [ref. needed] The fact that the President of the Commission is generally a retired judge of the Supreme Court has contributed to the Commission`s reputation.
[ref. needed] The Commission`s recommendations are not binding on the government. “These are recommendations. They can be accepted or rejected. The implementation of these recommendations depends on the ministries/departments dealing with the subject matter of the recommendations. [25] This has led to the failure to implement a number of important and essential recommendations. However, the Commission continued to work on the tasks entrusted to it. The Eighteenth Law Commission of India was established on 1 September 2006 and ran until 31 August 2009.
Judge M. Jagannadha Rao remained Chairman of the Commission until 28 May 2007, when Judge A. R. Lakshmanan was appointed Chairman of the Commission. She presented the following reports: The first Legal Commission of independent India was established in 1955. The Chairman of the Commission was Mr. M. C. Setalvad, who was also the first Attorney General of India.
The mandate of this Commission was set at three years (which has been contractually respected to date) and this Commission submitted its last report on 16 September 1958. The reports submitted by the First Legal Commission of India are as follows: [9] The Law Commission of India is a now-defunct executive body established by order of the Government of India. The commission is charged with investigating and advising the Indian government on legal reform, is composed of legal experts and is headed by a retired judge. The Commission is established for a limited term and acts as an advisory body to the Ministry of Law and Justice. The last President of the Commission retired in August 2018 and has not been reconstituted since. The Law Commission works in close coordination and under the overall guidance of the Ministry of Law and Justice. It usually serves as an initiation point for legal reform in the country. Internally, the Committee on Legal Affairs works in a research-oriented manner. The Commission employs a number of research analysts (and even law students from 2007[22]) and works on the assigned agenda, producing mainly research-based reports that are often conclusive and include recommendations. The permanent members of the Commission are usually responsible for determining the exact subject matter and the reference on which to work, and often call upon the services of reputable legal experts and lawyers who are familiar with the subject under consideration. These experts may either work part-time with the Commission or have been invited to contribute to specific reports or issues to be examined.
With all its past and present work, which is continuously made available on the Internet, the Commission has also actively supported legal research in the country. [ref. The fact that a number of its reports have been received and edited by the various ministries to change the legal scenario is in itself a sufficient indicator of the Commission`s role in promoting legislative reform in India. [ref. needed] The tradition of conducting legal reforms through a legal commission continued in post-independent India. The First Legal Commission of Independent India was established in 1955 and twenty other legal commissions have been established since then. Each of these commissions was led by a leading legal entity in India and made a significant contribution to the Indian legal diaspora. The contribution of each of these commissions is indicated below.
According to the Commission`s website, the Commission`s permanent staff consists of a dozen researchers of different grades and experience, with a small group of Secretariat staff responsible for the administrative aspect of the Commission`s work[23], and the Commission`s internal functioning can be described as a process involving the following steps: Judge K.T. Sankaran, Professor Anand Paliwal, Professor D.P. Verma, Professor Raka Arya and Mr Karunanithi were appointed members of the Commission. One of the most important issues before the Legal Affairs Committee is the call for an amendment to the Indian Penal Code in response to allegations of abuse and arbitrary application of the law. The Ministry of Justice had requested the Commission to investigate the implementation of the provisions of section 124A (sedition) of the Penal Code. The Sixteenth Law Commission was established in 2000. Until 2001, Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy remained Chairman of the Commission, while the Commission worked between 2002 and 2003 under the chairmanship of Justice Jagannadha Rao. [10] It submitted the following reports: [16] The Commission`s authority to discuss suo motu issues and make recommendations has also proven beneficial to the Indian legal system. [ref. needed] The history of the Commission is replete with such recommendations made during the hour where the law had to be amended.
[ref. needed] In addition, the Commission has often been referred to examine its previous reports in the context of changing scenarios and legal capacity in such situations. [ref. needed] In particular, euthanasia and related issues have been one of those areas where the Commission has examined the situation at least three times, most recently in its 196th report on the subject. [ref. In addition to the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court has also asked the Commission to address specific issues and present its views on various occasions. The most recent in connection with the 205. Report of the Commission prepared in response to the Supreme Court`s request for assistance in determining “certain legal issues relating to child marriage and the different ages at which a person is defined as a child in different laws”. The report sparked a public debate in India because, among other things, it recommended lowering the age of marriage for boys to the level of girls to 18, instead of the long-standing 21 and 18 respectively. Once the report has been submitted to the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Commission terminates, unless it is obliged to revise certain areas or to provide clarification by the Government on the report submitted.