Government plans to make Law Commission, which advises government on complex legal issues, into a permanent body, a move aimed at bringing continuity in its functioning.
At present the Union Cabinet re-constitutes the Commission every three years. After the Commission is reconstituted, a new Chairman and members are appointed to run the panel.
Deposing before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, Law Secretary P K Malhotra said, “Since the Law Commission is continuously functioning since 1959 and is reconstituted every three years, it is suggested that it be made a permanent body either by an Executive Order or by an Act of Parliament.”
The Parliamentary panel was scrutinising the demands for grants of the Law Ministry.
If the law panel is converted into a permanent body by an Act of Parliament, it will become a statutory body. If it is made a permanent body by an executive order, it will be on the lines of the erstwhile Planning Commission or its new avatar Niti Aayog. Both were constituted by a resolution adopted by the Union Cabinet.
In 2010, the then UPA government had prepared a draft Cabinet note to give statutory status to the Law Commission and the Law Ministry had mooted to bring the Law Commission of India Bill, 2010. But the idea was perhaps shelved.
Sources in the Law Ministry said this will help the panel bring out more reports without compromising on quality as three years is a limited time.
