On day 3 of Parliament, LS passed bill to repeal archaic laws, Rajya Sabha approved more autonomy to IIMs, amended Companies Act

The third day of the Winter Session of the Parliament saw some brief disruption at the start of the day before both Houses of Parliament went about smoothly with the legislative business of the day. Among the several bills that were passed in both the Houses of Parliament were the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2017, Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017. Lok Sabha takes up land acquisition bill The Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017 for amending regulations governing compensation amount payable for acquisition of immovable property by the central government for defence and security purposes was moved in the Lok Sabha. The bill was moved by newly appointed Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The bill seeks to amend a provision to allow the Centre to re-issue the notice of acquisition in order to ensure that the property’s owner gets an opportunity to be heard. Lower House passes bill to repeal old laws The Lok Sabha also passed two Bills to repeal 245 obsolete and archaic laws , including the 158-year-old Calcutta Pilots Act of 1859 and the 1911 Prevention of Seditious Meeting Act. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the old and many irrelevant pre-Independence laws were the “unfortunate part of the colonial legacy” and repealing them was a progressive move that reflects the “pro-reform” approach of the government. He was replying to a debate on the Repealing and Amending Bill and the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill which would repeal these age-old laws. Some of the old acts that have been repealed are the Hackney Carriage Act, 1879 which was legislated for the regulation and control of hackney carriages, Dramatic Performance Act, 1876 when theatre was being used a medium of protest against the British rule. [caption id=“attachment_4267185” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Lok Sabha passed two key bills on Tuesday. PTI[/caption] CRF (Amendment) Bill passed in Lok Sabha The Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill passed by the Lok Sabha seeks to allocate a share of this cess towards the development of inland waterways. The Central Road Fund Act regulates the CRF, that is credited with the cess collected on diesel and petrol. The amount collected is then released to National Highways Authority of India, and to the state/union territory for the development of national and state highways. Rajya Sabha passes bill to give more autonomy to IIMs The Rajya Sabha passed a bill, extending greater autonomy to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) by restricting the government’s role in their functioning and granting them power to award degrees to their graduates. The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017 — which was passed in the Lok Sabha in July this year — grants statutory powers to the IIMs in their running including the appointment of directors and faculty members. The bill gives them powers to award degrees instead of postgraduate diplomas. “The bill offers autonomy to these institutes. Through this bill we will remove all interference of the government, bureaucracy in the functioning of the IIMs. They will themselves decide how to manage and run these premier institutes,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said while initiating a discussion. Rajya Sabha passes amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 The Rajya Sabha passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 by a voice vote. It was adopted by the Lok Sabha in July this year during the Monsoon Session. The bill amended the companies law to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business in the country. Replying to issues raised by the members during a discussion on the bill, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs PP Chaudhary said the amendment would ensure better corporate governance and improve the ease of doing business in the country. The bill provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous UPA regime. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2016 and then referred to the Standing Committee on Finance. After taking into consideration the recommendations of the panel, the Cabinet had cleared a revised bill in March this year. With inputs from PTI