‘Law reforms should reflect changes in society'-Harsh laws no substitute for inadequate implementation: Chairman-5/2/11

‘Law reforms should reflect changes in society'

Staff Reporter

Harsh laws no substitute for inadequate implementation: Chairman

— Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Law Commission of India Chairman Justice P.V. Reddi addresses the conference of Commonwealth Law Reform Agencies in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: Law Commission of India (LCI) Chairman Justice P.V. Reddi has said that reforms in law should be in tune with the changing socio-economic conditions of society. Continuity of the process was necessary in shaping people-oriented laws, he added.

Speaking at a two-day conference of Commonwealth Law Reform Agencies (CALRAs), organised as a prelude to the Commonwealth Law Conference scheduled to begin on February 6, Mr. Reddi said Law Reforms Commissions (LRCs) would play a key role in not only shaping the reforms but in their implementation as well. They also mould and modulate the law reforms needed, he noted.

Stating that the commissions had to grapple with socio-economic issues continuously, Justice Reddi emphasised how changing laws would be vital to the growth of a society. “LRCs must find solutions to manifold problems of society and it's not possible if such agencies are static,” he said.



Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chief Justice of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, arrives with his wife at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad,

240 reports

He pointed out that harsh laws would not fill the void left by inadequate implementation of the laws. Simplification of procedures and modernisation of important laws were necessary to improve the existing judicial system. The LCI had submitted 240 reports to the Government of India since its establishment in 1955.

Expressing similar views, the former chairman of LCI, Justice M.J. Rao, said laws needed to reflect changes in society from time to time for delivering better justice. “Law without reforms will become inappropriate to the changing society.”

Environmental court

Setting up the Environmental Court led by a retired judge of the Supreme Court was one of the major suggestions of the LCI in recent times, he noted. The court was established on the lines of the ones in Australia and New Zealand.

The general secretary of CALRAs, Michael Sayers, said law reforms agencies worldwide were suffering owing to lack of resources and political pressure.

Representatives of 16 Commonwealth countries are participating in the meet whose theme is “Law Reforms in the Modern World — New Methods and Difficult Times.”

Chairman of Karnataka State Law Commission, Justice V.S. Malimath; Commissioner of Kenya Law Reforms Commission, Mbage Nganga; and Chairman of Northern Ireland Law Commission, Justice Bernard McCloskey, spoke on various aspects of law reforms