The draft of the law should be made public 60 days in advance, the demand made by filing a PIL in SC

Public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court amid the ongoing agitation against the new farm laws in Delhi. In this, the Central and State Governments have been requested to publish the draft of the law on government websites and public domain and seek people’s response at least 60 days before the bill is introduced in Parliament or Assembly. BJP leader and lawyer Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay has filed a petition in the Supreme Court saying that the pre-legislative consultation policy was decided in the meeting of the committee of secretaries on 10 January 2014, headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

So that opinion and feedback can be taken from the general public about the proposed law and it can be debated. The petition filed in the court said that a rigorous public debate on the law for 2 months will give the executive full opportunity to analyze every aspect and the lawmakers will be able to give better suggestions when the law is debated in Parliament.

The draft will be published in all newspapers

After this, the new draft should be published in newspapers in all regional languages, so that the suggestions received from all sections can be considered. By doing this, the law will be flawed and democratically accepted. The petitioner says that such an exercise will not result in the filing of petitions challenging the law as the court may ask the petitioner why he had not given his suggestion to the government.

He says that by doing so the process of law-making will be more effective and transparent. This will strengthen democracy and reduce public interest petitions. Citing the three agricultural laws passed a few months ago, he said that there are misunderstanding and confusion among the farmers regarding these laws. He claims that since the draft of the law was not widely consulted and was not published, there is a misunderstanding among the farmers. This is why farmers are protesting.