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INTRODUCTION
For the purpose of law reforms official bodies exist or may be
constituted from time to time and the work of these bodies can
have considerable influence on the development or reforms of
statute law. The most important of these bodies is the Law
Commission of India, which has a significant contribution in
criminal, civil and other law reforms in India. After the
commencement of the Constitution of India it became
absolutely necessary to review the existing laws.
Recommendations of such official bodies for law reforms are a
continuous process, but law making is the power of the
competent legislative authority. It is to be noticed that power to
make law with regard to any subject carries with it allancillary
and incidental powers to make it effective and workable, to
prevent its evasion, to amend and even to repeal it.1
MEANING OF REPEAL
Repeal means to revoke, abrogate or cancel particularly a
statute. Any statute may repeal an Act in whole or in part,
either expressly or impliedly by enacting matter contrary to and
inconsistent with the prior legislation. Thus a statute frequently
states that certain prior statutory provisions are thereby
repealed. The courts will treat matter as repealed by
implication only if the earlier and later statutory provisions are
clearly inconsistent. When a repealing provision is itself
repealed, this does not revive any provision previously repealed
by it, unless intent to revive is apparent, but it may allow
common law principles again to apply.
Modification is no repeal
POWER TO REPEAL
A power to make a law with respect to the topics committed to
Parliament or State Legislature carries with it a power to repeal
a law on those topics. In Ramakrishna v. Janapadad Sabha,4
the Supreme Court had laid down that subject to any
constitutional restriction, the general rule is that the power of
a legislative body to repeal a law is co-extensive with its power
to enact such a law and a Legislature which has no power to
enact a law on a particular subject-matter has also no power to
repeal the same. A Legislature, however, has no power to bind
itself or its successor as to the course of future legislation for to
acknowledge such a power will remain that a Legislature can
curtail its own or its successors powers which are conferred by
the Constitution and which cannot be restricted or taken away
except by an amendment of the Constitution. It is an axiom of
British Constitutional law that Acts of Parliament derogatory
from the subsequent Parliament bind not. Because the
Legislature being in truth the sovereign power is always of
equal and always of absolute authority. It acknowledges no
superior upon earth, which the prior Legislature must have
been, if its ordinances could bind a subsequent Parliament.
5 AIR 1958 Bom 507; (1959) 61 Bom LR 1141: ILR 1958 Bom 361.
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MODES OF REPEAL
Parliament has the power to make a law and to repeal any
existing law- be it temporary statute or a perpetual statute.
Repeal may be brought by the Legislature in the two following
ways:
EXPRESS REPEAL
The use of any particular form of words is not necessary to
bring about an express repeal. All that is necessary is that the
words used show an intention to abrogate the Act or previous
provision in question. The usual from is to use the words shall
cease to have effect is also not uncommon. When the object is
to repeal only a portion of an Act words shall be omitted are
normally used. The legislative practice in India shows that
omission of a provision is treated as amendment which
signifies deletion of that provision and is not different from
6 Vino C, & P. Works (P) Ltd. V. Commissioner of Income Tax, AIR 2000 SC 1623.
The last two types of repeal are in uncertain terms and require
to be construed by the Court as to what and how much is to be
repealed.
IMPLIED REPEAL
In this case, the Legislature does not use the words to precisely
show its intention to repeal a law. Instead, it enacts a law which
is so contradictory to an existing law that both cannot be given
effect to. This implies abrogation of the existing law. Thus,
implied repeal is the result of inconsistent subsequent
legislation. The implied repeal takes place in the following two
ways:-
11 (1998) 1 CALLT 257 HC, 1998 (79) FLR 372, 1997 LablC 1207.
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14 2004(1) Mh LJ SC 306.
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REVIVAL OF STATUTES
The Common Law principle was that when a statute was
repealed and the repealing statute itself was repealed by
another statute, the repeal of the second statute itself was
repealed by another statute the repeal of the second statute
would automatically bring back or revive the first statute
provided there was no intention that the original statute would
remain repealed. Section 11 (1) of the Interpretation Act, 1889
of United Kingdom states that where an Act passed after 1850
repeals a repealing enactment, it shall not be construed as
reviving any enactment previously repealed, unless words are
added reviving that enactment.
CONCLUSION
In the end it can be concluded that Repeal means to revoke,
abrogate or cancel particularly a statute. Any statute may
repeal any Act in whole or in part, either expressly or impliedly
by enacting matter contrary to and inconsistent with the prior
legislation. Thus a statute frequently states that certain prior
statutory provisions are thereby repealed. The courts will treat
matter as repealed by implication only if the earlier and later
statutory provisions are clearly inconsistent. Repeal can be of
two types i.e., express repeal and implied repeal. Express
repeal is where the intention to repeal is expressed in the
subsequent Act by the Legislature whereas in implied repeal
the intention of the Legislature is implied when the subsequent
Act enacted is so inconsistent with the previous one that only
one of them can subsist. The provisions dealing with repeal and
revival of statutes is contained in Sections 6 and 7 of the
General Clauses Act, 1897.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY