The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019, which seeks to repeal 68 Acts and makes minor amendments to four other laws as Shashi Tharoor (Congress) demanded abolition of the Sedition Law and criticised the government for its misuse.
The Bill makes minor amendments to the Income Tax Act, 1961, the India Institutes of Management Act, 2017, the Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976, and the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2001. In case of first two laws, the amendment related to substitution of certain words.
Moving the Bill for passage, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said strict action would be taken against law-breakers. The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 25, was passed within 15 minutes as only Tharoor from the opposition participated in the debate.
Tharoor said over 200 people had been arrested in the past five years under the Sedition Law.
Demanding its abolition, Tharoor said the British government had used the law against (Mahatma) Gandhi, (Jawaharlal) Nehru and Bhagat Singh. "We (the government) are using it against Jawaharlal Nehru University students," the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
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