Rajya Sabha adjourned till tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday adjourned till tomorrow at 11 am. Earlier in the day, Rajya Sabha passed a Bill to repeal 76 laws that are obsolete or that have been made redundant by other laws.

The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2023, was passed through voice vote in the Upper House after a short debate with the participation of eight legislators in the discussion, as almost the entire Opposition walked out of the House on the issue of security breaches in the Lok Sabha. Besides repealing 76 obsolete laws, the Bill seeks to correct a minor drafting error in the Factoring Regulation Act, 2011. First Schedule of the Bill lists 24 laws that would be repealed.

Of these, 16 are amending Acts, and two are from before 1947. The Second Schedule of the Bill lists 41 Appropriation Acts that would be repealed. These include 18 Appropriation Acts for the Railways.

These Acts span the years from 2013 to 2017. Responding to the debate, Union Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal said 76 laws that had been obsolete are being repealed through the Bill as this is the procedure to repeal any Bill.

The Minister said that eight MPs took part in the debate and pointed out that the government has to come up with a Bill to repeal obsolete laws as they cannot die naturally like human beings.

On the 22nd anniversary of the Parliament terror attack, there was a major security breach when two intruders entered the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitor gallery during Zero Hour. The incident happened when members were raising matters of urgent public importance and BJP MP Khagen Murmu was raising his issue. Simultaneously, two individuals, including a woman, sprayed colored gas and shouted slogans outside the Parliament premises.