India's Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar called on state governments and the Union administration to forge an active partnership to overhaul the country's legal architecture, warning that outmoded statutes impede administration and place undue burdens on citizens.
Addressing the inaugural session of the national conference on ‘Cooperative Federalism and Law Reforms: National and State Perspectives’ organized by the Law Commission of India, Dhankhar stated that cooperative federalism must never be reduced to rigid central uniformity. States, he asserted, need autonomy and legal flexibility to tailor statutes to local realities while simultaneously cleaning up decades of statutory clutter, according to coverage documented by The Hindu — National dispatch.
The push comes as India accelerates institutional legal overhauls across its justice system. The Vice-President observed that while the Union government has repealed hundreds of outdated colonial enactments over the last decade, state statute books remain crowded with redundant, pre-independence mandates that complicate commerce, civic administration, and judicial dispute resolution.
Balancing Common Goals With Regional Autonomy
Dhankhar framed statutory modernization as a joint constitutional duty rather than a top-down directive from New Delhi. Cooperative federalism, he explained, does not compel identical legislative provisions across all jurisdictions, because regional economic requirements and cultural differences demand distinct regulatory approaches.
Under India's constitutional framework, legislative powers are split between the Union List, the State List, and the Concurrent List. While subjects on the Union List fall under Parliament's sole jurisdiction, the Concurrent List allows both Parliament and state legislative assemblies to legislate, often leading to statutory overlap if institutional coordination falters.
Dhankhar urged state law departments and legislative drafters to establish continuous lines of communication with central advisory panels. By coordinating legislative priorities, regional assemblies can preserve local safeguards while systematically eliminating contradictions that trigger protracted litigation in high courts across the country.
Systematic Repeal of Archaic Colonial Statutes
The Union government has repealed more than 1,500 obsolete central acts over the last several years to simplify the statute book. However, legal researchers have repeatedly documented that thousands of state-level rules, departmental codes, and pre-independence regulations remain unrevised.
These antiquated mandates often impose outdated licensing requirements, archaic inspections, and minor criminal penalties that modern regulatory agencies rarely enforce until a formal dispute surfaces. The administrative friction directly affects small entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens, who must navigate overlapping municipal bylaws and decades-old state enactments, as noted in assessments on state-level law reform initiatives.
Dhankhar emphasized that the Law Commission of India provides an institutional platform to identify dead-letter laws—statutes that exist on paper but serve no functional purpose. He asked state governments to set up dedicated scrutiny panels to screen regional codes, identify obsolete sections, and present comprehensive repeal bills during regional assembly sessions.
Easing the Burden on Indian Courts
The Vice-President linked outdated statutory drafting directly to the heavy pendency cases facing the Indian judiciary. Subordinate courts and high courts regularly spend judicial hours resolving ambiguity arising from vague definitions or conflicting state and central notifications.
When state assemblies update their laws in alignment with modern national standards, disputes can be settled before reaching trial judges. Dhankhar noted that clear, plain-language statutory drafting prevents arbitrary administrative actions and minimizes writ petitions filed by citizens seeking relief from conflicting executive orders.
Senior legal practitioners attending the summit echoed these observations, pointing out that obsolete laws act as an invitation to bureaucratic overreach. As detailed in the Law Commission conference proceedings, streamlining state-level legal codes represents the most practical pathway to reducing avoidable civil litigation.
Bridging Institutional Gaps Across Jurisdictions
The Law Commission convened the conference to establish an active, structured dialogue between state law secretaries, central ministries, and legal drafting experts. Historically, state law reform commissions operate sporadically, with several states lacking permanent bodies to review legislation on a regular cycle.
Delegates discussed mechanisms to digitize state gazettes, harmonize legal repositories, and share best practices in modern drafting techniques. When one state successfully decriminalizes minor procedural lapses or eliminates an obsolete commercial license, other assemblies can adapt the corresponding model statute without duplicating committee reviews.
Dhankhar underscored that shared knowledge strengthens national unity by proving that democratic institutions can work together effectively. Rather than centralizing authority, joint legal review respects state legislatures as primary incubators of innovative public policy.
Next Steps for State Assemblies
The recommendations emerging from the Law Commission conference will be compiled into an advisory framework for state legal departments. The report is slated to outline specific methodologies for auditing state statute books and establishing collaborative drafting panels alongside central ministries.
State governments are expected to review the conference findings ahead of their upcoming legislative sessions, where several administrations plan to table omnibus repeal bills. Whether state legislatures commit the dedicated administrative staff needed to review decades of unamended laws will determine the practical impact of the Vice-President's appeal.
Historical Precedents and Parliamentary Repeal Drives
The call to expunge outdated state enactments builds on previous high-level reviews undertaken at the national level. Between 2014 and 2019, a specialized two-member committee headed by R. Ramanujam identified 1,741 central acts for immediate repeal, prompting Parliament to pass successive Repealing and Amending Acts that excised hundreds of spent appropriation laws and obsolete colonial statutes. Legal scholars have noted that while the Union government systematically weeded out redundancies across central ministries, corresponding state-level cleanup drives have lagged significantly behind due to limited legislative drafting capacity within regional law departments.
Dhankhar noted that judicial efficiency relies fundamentally on legislative clarity, observing that modern citizens should never face harassment under laws framed during imperial governance. By institutionalizing annual statutory audits and sunset clauses in new legislation, both central and state lawmakers can ensure statutory codes remain relevant to contemporary constitutional values and commercial demands.
Historical Precedents and Parliamentary Repeal Drives
The call to expunge outdated state enactments builds on previous high-level reviews undertaken at the national level. Between 2014 and 2019, a specialized two-member committee headed by R. Ramanujam identified 1,741 central acts for immediate repeal, prompting Parliament to pass successive Repealing and Amending Acts that excised hundreds of spent appropriation laws and obsolete colonial statutes. Legal scholars have noted that while the Union government systematically weeded out redundancies across central ministries, corresponding state-level cleanup drives have lagged significantly behind due to limited legislative drafting capacity within regional law departments.
Dhankhar noted that judicial efficiency relies fundamentally on legislative clarity, observing that modern citizens should never face harassment under laws framed during imperial governance. By institutionalizing annual statutory audits and sunset clauses in new legislation, both central and state lawmakers can ensure statutory codes remain relevant to contemporary constitutional values and commercial demands.
Modern Regulatory Harmonization Across Federal States
Legal reform analysts point out that obsolete state statutes often conflict with modern national digital public infrastructure, unified taxation under the Goods and Services Tax framework, and simplified single-window commercial compliance portals. When state legislatures modernize municipal codes and decriminalize minor procedural lapses, local enforcement agencies can direct administrative resources toward public safety, urban infrastructure development, and accountable governance. The Law Commission’s ongoing consultations with state advocate generals represent a foundational step toward establishing a standardized legislative drafting manual that bridges regional statutory traditions with national regulatory standards.
