PM's Parting Policy Gift for Sonia

Author: U Anand Kumar

Published Date: Mar 9, 2014 9:12 AM

Last Updated: Mar 9, 2014 9:12 AM

As the UPA governments term comes to an end, many of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhis wish
list of legislative and policy businesses remain just there, on paper.

As the UPA governments term comes to an end, many of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhis wish list of legislative and
policy businesses remain just there, on paper. But the Manmohan Singh government, as a parting gift, fulfilled one of her
wishes by evolving a Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy (PLCP) which would have to be followed by any government that
comes to power in future.

Faced with a peoples movement for a Jan Lokpal Bill and the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party, combined with the
criticism of UPA ministers by a number of parliamentary standing committees for presenting weak Bills without proper
consultation, Sonia utilized the National Advisory Council (NAC) to formulate a pre-legislative policy.

A number of department-related parliamentary standing committees, in the recent past, have found fault with UPA
ministers for lack of a thorough consultative process while drafting historic pieces of legislation, having a wide-ranging
impact on various sections of the people.

The NAC on May 28 last year sent a set of recommendations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh providing for an elaborate
pre-legislative process to make law-making more participatory, deliberative and accountable.

Though the government sat on the recommendations for months, it was reminded by the NAC to act immediately after the
passage of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament. On his part, the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to evolve the
government policy on pre-legislative consultation.

The Cabinet Secretary chaired a meeting of committee of secretaries on January 10 to finalise the PLCP including
principal and subordinate legislation.

Law Secretary P K Malhotra on February 5 circulated the recommendations of the committee of secretaries and the policy
on pre-legislative consultation to all secretaries.

In his letter, Malhotra made it clear that the policy on pre-legislation consultation should be invariably followed by every
Ministry and department of the Central government before any legislative proposal is submitted to the Cabinet for
consideration and approval. He also said this policy should guide and govern the handling of subordinate legislations.

Keeping in view the objections of some ministries, the committee of secretaries suggested, If the Department/Ministry
concerned is of the view that it is not feasible or desirable to hold pre-legislative consultation as detailed above, it may
record the reasons in the note for the Cabinet.

The effectiveness and importance of pre-legislative scrutiny was under consideration of the government for quite some
time. The pre-legislative scrutiny takes place before the final drafting of a Bill has been decided and it is introduced in
Parliament. As per practice, only a limited number of Bills were published in draft form and scrutinized this way, the Law
Secretary admitted in his letter.

As per the policy document, every Department or Ministry shall proactively publish the proposed legislations both on the
internet as also through other means.

It also says that the Department/Ministry concerned should publish or place in public domain the draft legislation or at least
the information that may inter alia include brief justification for such legislation, essential elements of the proposed
legislation, its broad financial implications, and an estimated assessment of the impact of such legislation on
environment, fundamental rights, lives and livelihoods of the concerned/affected people. Such details may be kept in the
public domain for a minimum period of 30 days for being proactively shared with the public in such manner as may be
specified by the department or ministry concerned.

The summary of feedback/comments received from the public or other stakeholders should also be placed on the website
of the department or ministry concerned.