One official website to host every central law, its subsidiary Acts, rules and procedures

As a constitutional democracy, laws of the land define the governance, economic and political system in India. There are more than 1,000 central laws. But where, in one, convenient, officially verified place, can a citizen find all the laws of the land? Right now, nowhere.

But hopefully soon, when a mammoth exercise undertaken by the Centre is over, there will be one official website that will host every central law and its subsidiary Acts as well as rules and procedures. Plus, the website will be mobile-viewing friendly. The website, India Code, is up, but the job of collecting all laws and putting them up is on. The cabinet secretariat, ET has learnt, is monitoring the exercise.

This is happening thanks to a 2016 writ petition in the Delhi High Court filed by Vansh Sharad Gupta seeking online access to Indian laws. The high court has been regularly monitoring progress on its directions given in 2017 via status reports.

The court, as it were, has laid down the law on this –
(a) All Central Acts and subordinate legislations passed by the Centre, including rules, regulations, notifications and circulars, should be made available on this portal (b) The data uploaded on the portal should be available in machine readable PDF format
(c) Navigation on this portal should be such that the complete law-making chain, right from the parent act to the subordinate legislations, is clearly visible
(d) The portal should allow uploading of state government Acts, rules, regulations and subordinate legislations as well.
(e) The portal must be mobile viewing-friendly and (f) All ministries, departments must have a nodal officer for this exercise.

Once complete, citizens will finally not have to hunt for various private sector print or web resources to read the laws that govern them.

For example, you won’t find the income tax law as it is now anywhere in either a single government publication or an official website.

Private publishers have printed copies of the tax law, and online too, the relevant site is managed by a private entity. Same is the case with laws under the ambit of other ministries. And since this are the laws of the land, most private efforts carry the disclaimer that the official version should be checked as well.

The problem is easily finding an authenticated official version. “India Code portal will have all central acts and subordinate legislations,” said a government official, who did not want to be identified.

Ministries and departments are now frantically digging out old but in-force laws, directives and orders.