Launching RAAH - A project by team Legal Moksha

It is said that youth is naive and is not affected by inhibitions. For five students from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, working on rural development was not merely a project. It was more than a trip to the other side of India where they live and where rests our future. It was the overwhelming need to participate in the development of the rural society, the self-gratifying need to do good-selflessly, as was envisioned by the Father of the Nation when he described the role youth should play in society, that made them visit a village in Hardoi (Gramsabha Gondarao Block Ahirori) to observe the situation of education, health, infrastructure and legal awareness in rural India.
  A visit of such kind was unprecedented especially in the said village, and the students infused fear in the hearts of a sleeping administration. The purpose of their visit earned them the support and goodwill of the School Headmaster.

A detailed study gave them the following basic information regarding the status of primary education. There were two schools-a primary school and a junior school, running adjacent to each other.

 a). The Primary School had no infrastructure.
 b). The students found the primary school children studying under the tree.
 c). The Junior School had little infrastructure.
 d). Small rooms with suffocating atmosphere and no electricity.
 e). The lavatories were in a dilapidated condition.
And that was all the infrastructure that the children have for their education which is guaranteed in the Constitution of India, as a fundamental right of every child in India.
 
Subsequent interaction with a teacher provided us with valuable insights regarding the working of the education machinery in villages. As per the guidelines, no more than 40 students are to be assigned to one teacher. However, both the schools together had around 500 students and just 3 teachers. However, things did not end here. Regular classes were held for around 75-100 days a year. Even these days, their Government duties eclipse their teaching duties. A regular outsourcing of man-power from the school administration for Government duties and various other statutory services in other projects like Polio Booths, census and counting, election duties etc. make it difficult for the children to enjoy the minimal quality requirements of education.
 Children are the future of a nation. They are the most vulnerable, yet strongest part of a nation. For an emerging and developing country like India, development of underprivileged children holds the key to the progress of the nation itself. Education of children-urban or rural is the key whether we are addressing healthcare, poverty, population control, and unemployment or human rights issues.

 It is ironic for a country like India to be in such a deteriorating condition in the field of education considering the fact that the founding fathers of our country had advocated education as the most essential step to building a strong nation. For a country looked up for its intelligentsia, the classrooms like the ones witnessed by the students go a long way in describing the importance we give to the Temples of Knowledge.

The situation is bad yet we still have the capacity to recover from the loss. To expect instantaneous change would be foolish, however, to hope for betterment is what we move forward with. We move forward with the belief that a small and selfless act for change can bring a revolution and that is exactly what is mirrored in the students.

Contents of Legislation

This Article describes , How to Draft a legislation.

Bills and Statutory instruments (subsidiary legislation) are drafted in response to the requirements of a government department. There are some bills which are simple and can be drafted in a very short time on the other hand there are bills which involve major legislative areas and take months or even years to draft.

Here is a classification of contents commonly found in Indian Legislations.

1.      Object and Reason Clause.

    This clause specifies the basic purpose behind the enactment of the legislature. In case laws while applying the ‘golden rule’ or the ‘mischief’ rule of interpretation of statues, the object & reason clause is a veritable goldmine of knowledge. It specifies the need and importance for and the goals to be achieved through the enactment of the legislature. It embodies the intention of the legislator while framing the legislation, and thus aids in interpretation in case of any ambiguity.

It is a clause, the reading of which, gives one a general idea of what a piece of legislation intends to achieve. It specifies the objectives and the reasons behind those objectives.

2.      Short Title

 It is the formal name given to a legislation.

 e. g .  “The Advocates Act, 1961”

Its ideally suggestive of the contents and the area the legislation deals with.

 “Short titles are generally made up of just a few words that describe in broad terms the area of law being changed or the thing affected, followed by the word “Act” and then the year in which the legislation is formally enacted.”

 – From Wikipedia

 Draft legislation (bills) also uses short titles, but substitutes the word “Bill” for “Act”.

3.      No. of Act

 “(Act no. 25 of 1961)”    as stated in “The Advocates Act, 1961 “means that The Advocates Act was 25^th act to be passed in the year 1961.

 Note:- The year of enactment is, at times, also mentioned in the Long Title.

    4.      Sources of Legislation

    The acts, taking cognizance of which, the legislation has been       passed.

    In normal terms source of legislation means the relevant               authority which inspired the drafting of the act.

e.g.
Source of Legislation for The Advocates Act, 1961
 “ The Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 (18 of 1879), the Bombay Pleaders Act, 1920 (17 of 1920) and the Indian Bar Councils Act, 1926 (38 of 1926) “ 

Thus a legislation may be drafted integrating different legislations on that topic, or may be passed to ratify an international convention, or as a result of recommendations from the Law Commission, eminent jurists and scholars, case laws or through public opinion.

5.      Preamble

The preamble highlights the purpose, object and intent of the Act. It is an important tool of interpretation, and has been called the “key to the mind of the legislator”.  These days a preamble is generally omitted, but it has been recommended for

a)       Legislations with constitutional importance i.e. when the subject matter is constitutional in nature.

b)      Legislations ratifying an international convention.

c)      Legislations where local or customary laws have been given preference.

6.      Long Title

A long title defines the purpose, and the main principle of the legislation in a single line. It gives a bird’s eye view of the subject matter of the legislation.

e.g
 As mentioned in Advocates Act
“An act to amend and conslidate the law relating to legal practitioner and to provide for the constitution of Bar Councils and an All India Bar.”

7.      Extent Clause

It specifies the territorial mandate of the legislation concerned, For example the Indian Contract Act is applicable to the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Different legislatures have different extent clauses depending upon their nature and objectives.

8.      Application Clause

This clause answers the question ‘To whom it may apply’. For example in the Hindu marriage Act the word ‘Hindu’ applies to ‘Jains’, ‘Buddhists’ and ‘Sikhs’ as well.

9.      Commencement Clause

It specifies on what date and how the Act comes into effect.

a.      Indicate Effect

Indicates that the act shall come into force when it receives assent of the authority, the President.

b.      On a particular date

When the legislators have premeditated the date for the commencement of the legislation, they indicate the same in the commencement clause.

c.       By a notification

In many cases it is mentioned that the Act will become operative from the day it is notified in the Official Gazette.

10.  Definition Clause

It defines the terms used commonly throughout the legislature and also specifies the extent to which people or acts come under the ambit of a particular definition. It either restricts or enlarges the literal meaning of a word to suit the purpose of the act, normally in general cases section 2 or 3 of legislatures contain the definition clause.

11.  Substantive Clause

 It is the main body of the legislation. The bulk of the operational clauses of the act are contained in it.

12.  Miscellaneous Clauses

The above clauses are an essential part of all the legislations in general, but there are certain clauses which serve a specific purpose and may not be applicable to all legislations. Some of them are as follows:

a.      Non Obstante Clause:

Sometimes it becomes necessary to provide that a particular Act should operate notwithstanding anything contained in any other law which is contrary to the provisions of this Act.  In other words, in cases where it is not possible to examine all relevant laws to decide which provision should be overruled and to what extent, the convenient device is adopted whereby the particular law is given overriding effect.

e.g

The Advocates Act, 1961

“58AG. [(Note:- Section 58AG ins. by Act 38 of 1977, sec.7) Special provisions in relation to article clerks- Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, every person who immediately before the 31st day of December, 1976 has commenced his articleship and passed the Preliminary examination, for the purpose of enrolment as an attorney of the High Court at Calcutta in accordance with rules made under sub section (2) of section 34………..”

b.      Protection of Action taken in good faith:

 This clause gives protection to authorities during the course of performance of their duties.

 e.g 

Protection given to police while they are on duty.

c.       Rule making power clause:

It delegates authority to executive body, already existing or which is established by the Act, the power to form certain rules regarding procedure and function of the body in the jurisdiction of the body, to carry out the mandate given in the Act.

e.g 

Under RTI Central Information Commission has been formed and given certain rule making powers.

d.      Saving Clause:

This clause states that the present legislation is not in derogation i.e. doesn’t override or overrule past legislations, it merely supplements them.


- Piyush Raj Verma

A nation with an identity: The UIDAI project by Nandan Nilekani

  On September 29 Our PM Manmohan Singh landed in Tembhli Villege Nandurbar district in Maharashtra with a 12 digit number to a new era. 

                               Ranjana Sadasiv Sonawane (782474317884) created a history by becoming the first person to get an unique identity number under the UPA govt’s ‘Adhar’ project. Her five year old son Hitesh also got a UID number. The PM declared that everyone will get this UID soon. This was a revolutionary step taken by our government. Definitely it is going to be very useful in this new technical world. Poor people in India don’t have any identity proof because of this shortcoming they couldn’t open bank accounts or get other benefits of government welfare programs and several times, these benefits are pocketed by others. Sonia Gandhi said “The goal of this project in not only development but inclusive growth.”

Brains behind the Project

 A graduate from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay with a B. Tech. in electrical engineering batch 1978, after his graduation he joined Patni Computer Systems where N. R. Narayana Murty took his interview. After three years there was a dispute in company and Murty walked out of Patni. His entire division walked out with him and the defectors established a new company INFOSYS. Later on he became the CEO of INFOSYS in March 2002, taking over from Murty. In July 2009 he left INFOSYS to serve the chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of India after getting an invitation from our prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, in the rank of a cabinet minister.

 An IAS officer Ram Sewak Sharma of Jharkhand Government cadre has been appointed as the Director General and Mission Director of the authority. He is a well-known person in the e-governance project in Jharkhand, he worked as an IT secretary and during his job period he has won a number of awards for best Information Technology Trends State in India.  

Unique Identification Authority of India 

 Also known as UIDAI project is a part of planning commission of India under which government of India will provide unique ID number to all Indians but not smart cards. The authority would provide a database of residents containing very simple data in biometrics. It will create world’s largest biometric database covering around one billion people. It will be a multipurpose identity card which will help people in several ways like in poverty alleviation programs such as NREGA, addressing Illegal Immigration into India and terrorist threats is another goal of the program. They are actually planning to link voter ID, passports, ration cards, licenses, fishing permits and a few more alike things into one card. The Union Labor Ministry has offered its verified Employment Provident Fund (EPFO) database of 42 million citizens as the first database to be integrated into the unique ID system. 

This project is known as AADHAR which means base or foundation.

            They have planned to introduce a micro-payment system in order to make banking services easy for rural people. The idea is to appoint Business Correspondents for every Gram Panchayat and they will be selected among the people themselves they could be kirana shop owner or any reputed person fromthat area and they will be working like instant ATM’s.

Nandan Nilekani says, ”This device will be based on a mobile phone connection and would be made available at every BC. Customers would just have to get their identity authenticated and withdraw or put money into their bank accounts. This money will not come from the ATM, but from the cash drawer of the BC” 

 Critiques

 The main critique is technical difficulty as in November 2009 WikiLeaks said that “The UID Database will be susceptible to attacks and leaks at various levels.” and a national database could allow police or intelligence groups to discriminate against people by caste, religion or birthplace.

Besides this Biometric verification is not 100% accurate. This technology is can’t distinguish between the upper skin of the finger and technically made dummy fingers of acrylic paint, silicon rubber etc and in this 21^st century fingerprint can be altered very easily by paying a very few thousand bucks .

             According to The Wall Street Journal, “Numerous social studies show that knowledge of these identifiers adversely impacts delivery of services such as education and health care to disadvantaged citizens.” 

            Except this there are people making statements about Article 21 of Indian Constitution and relating that with this project. A few more stating that it’s a gross violation of fundamental human rights and many more rumors are there including that NandanNilekani is misleading Indian government.

On the brighter side

 Now the government is using technology to better our lives. It is very helpful in making the system transparent and ensures speedy recovery of resources to the needy without any malpractice. It is a boon for our people.

 This project is not just for enabling the poor to access the government programs it will help them in so many ways and it is not just for villagers or poor people even urban educated persons will be getting profits from it. This way a ’ 12 digit no’ will be making the life of every Indian more lavish and beautiful.

- Piyush Raj Verma