THE SPECTRUM OF LAW-MAKING IN INDIA

Key points

• In India, Parliament is the Supreme law-making body.
• Expect items reserved unto the people by the virtue of Fundamental Rights and items reserved unto the States by the virtue of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.
• Parliament can make laws on virtually any subject within India's territory and in exceptional cases, extra-territorially.
• The Preamble lists the objectives of the Constitution to secure for all citizens justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.
• Undeterred by India's deep-seated inequalities and factionalism before and at the time of Independence.
• The framers of the Constitution undertook a leap of faith and envisioned a liberal, more egalitarian nation-state in the post-colonial world.

Building blocks of the Nehruvian years

First term (1947-1952)

1. The rehabilitation of Partition survivors and the administration of evacuee properties.
2. Assimilating princely states and the grant of privy purses.
3. Creating the statutory framework for the defence forces, the Reserve Bank of India as well as the Election Commission of India and
4. The initiation of land reforms.

India's first general election in 1952

1. Inducting new States and reorganising them on linguistic grounds (1956-1962)
2. Reforming Hindu Personal laws (1955, 1961)
3. Enacting an entire body of revenue and company codes (1952-1962)'
4. Administration of food and public distribution (1962)
5. Enacting labour protection laws (1948-1952)
6. Creating institutes of public importance such as the University Grants Commission, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indian Institutes of Technology (1956, 1961) and
7. Extending English as the official language (1963).

• Nehru's notable legislative failing was the staggering number of times that the Constitution was amended within his lifetime (16).
• Creating the exceptions to free speech and enacting the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, the two pieces of legislation that continue to be deeply contentious in their usage until this day.

Lal Bahadur Shastri

Indira Gandhi's long shadow

1. Legislated the Seeds Act 1966,
2. The Insecticides Act 1968 
3. Created two agricultural universities in 1970.
4. The substantial reform of criminal procedure (1973)
5. landmark rights-based pieces of legislation such as decriminalising abortion in 1971 (two years before the U.S. Supreme Court legalised it),
6. enhanced labour rights (1970, 1976) and
7. wildlife and environment protection laws (1972-1981).

1. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967,
2. The Maintenance of Internal Security Act 1971 and 
3. The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974

Mrs Gandhi's neo-socialist economic policies 

1. The nationalisation of mines, banks and insurance companies (1969-1976)
2. The abolition of privy purses of erstwhile rulers (1971)
3. Ceiling urban land holdings (1976) and 
4. Restricting corporations from paying dividends (1974).

Morarji Desai

• His government was to roll back the excesses committed under the Emergency with the enactment of the 44th Constitutional Amendment and restore civil liberties and judicial independence.
• It continued, in large measure, the predecessor's confiscatory economic policies, notably nationalising more industries and also the first exercise of demonetisation of currency notes in 1978.

Indira Gandhi's return

• Indira Gandhi returned for a second stint in 1980 and in what can be described as a vote-fate of her economic philosophy entered into the Indo-Mauritian Tax Treaty which became the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) to India for decades to come (ABOUT $140 billion between 2000-2020 alone).
• Extension of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) to quell the rising insurgency in Punjab was Mrs Gandhi's last major parliamentary legislation, the conflict cost her life in 1984.

Rajiv Gandhi

• The legislative apathy toward the 1984 Sikh Pogrom, 
• The hastily drafted Bhopal Gas Tragedy (Processing of Claims) Act 1985,
• The undoing of the Supreme Court's Judgement in Shah Bango gives maintenance rights to divorced Muslim Women,
• Insertion of anti-defection laws as the 10th Schedule to the Constitution (Making elected representatives essentially subservient to party bosses) and 
• Sending the Indian Army to Sri Lanka, a conflict which led to Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

Legislative legacy of Rajiv Gandhi

• It was saved with the comprehensive codification of the Environment protection, juvenile justice, mental health and consumer protection laws (1986-1987).
• The creation of a legal services authority to deliver the constitutional promise of free legal aid (1987) and 
• Easing of onerous labour laws (1988).
• Even while mired under allegations of corruption, Rajiv Gandhi, to his credit, enacted comprehensive anti-corruption and Benami Prohibition laws (both in 1988), which are in force until today.

V.P. Singh 

P.V. Narasimha Rao

• He inherited a nation facing severe headwinds from a balance of payment crisis to the dangerous arousal of communal passions.
• Heading a minority government, his legislative response was reasonably sober.

1. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 for maintenance of the religious character of places of worship.
2. Creation of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (1992)
3. The introduction of a service tax regime (1994) and 
4. Consolidating the public sector enterprises.
5. His social welfare laws were also laudable,
6. The creation of a National Human Rights Commission (1993),
7. Prohibition of manual scavenging (1993)
8. Prohibition of pre-natal gender selection (1994) and 
9. Protecting the rights of disabled persons (1995).

• Fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi's vision of local self-government, Narasimha Rao amended the Constitution to give a legislative basis to Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies.
• Despite accolades, his greatest constitutional failure was lethargy in bringing the chieftains of the Babri Masjid's demolition and ensuing riots, to justice.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

1. Liberalised foreign exchange laws and created a new insurance regulator (both in 1999)
2. Revamped the intellectual  property regime (1999, 2000)
3. Enacted a substantive information technology regime (1999), 
4. Enabled a substantive anti-money law (2002) and created a fiscal responsibility and budget management protocol (2003).
5. Two of his striking constitutional amendments were the insertion of Article 21A, Guaranteeing free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 years and
6. Implementing the recommendations of the Tenth Finance Commission (of Pooling and sharing all taxes between the Union and States).

Manmohan Singh's Right based approach

• Manmohan Singh's legislations reflect a rights-based approach to secure the egalitarian demands of democracy. Notable were the right to information,

1. The right to employment (The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)
2. Granting married Hindu women equal rights in an intestate succession of her parents.
3. Protection of women from domestic violence (2005) 
4. Senior citizen's welfare (2007)
5. Operationalising free and compulsory education for children (2009) 
6. The setting up of the Uniques Identification Authority of India (Aadhar) in 2009,
7. National Green Tribunal (2010) and
8. Protecting children from sexual offences (2012)

• In response to the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, He created the National Investigation Agency effectively cutting into the powers of States to manage law and order.
• Earlier that year, the global financial crisis impacted India, followed by a global outcry against tax havens.
• The legislative response came between 2009-2012, with the execution of multiple tax information exchange treaties and requiring residents (Even if not permanently resident) to disclose their global assets in India tax returns.
• In the Penultimate year of his government's tenure contrary to the charge of a "Policy paralysis".
• Manmohan Singh comprehensively reformed corporation laws and enacted a rights-based approach to food security and loan acquisition.
• Strengthened criminal laws to protect women from sexual crimes and before leaving office enacted the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act.

Narendra Modi Frist term

1. The enacting of the Black Money Act  of 2015 
2. The Commercial Courts Act 2015.
3. Enacting a monetary policy committee to manage consumer inflation, demonetisation of currency notes and a new bankruptcy regime in 2016,
4. Electoral bonds scheme
5. Delivery of welfare schemes through Aadhar
6. Adding teeth to the Benami Prohibition law
7. Enactment of a comprehensive Goods and Services Tax regime 2017
8. Fugitive economic offence act (2018).
9. The exception to this theme was the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Reservation of 10 per cent seats for Economically Weaker Sections in direct Union Employment and education.

Mr Modi's second term

• There was a seriously authoritarian bent of mind.
• There was the dilution of Article 370 withdrawing the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir followed swiftly by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to exclude Muslim refugees from rights to fast-track citizenship.
• There was a crescendo with the agricultural "Reforms" law repealed after much protest and loss of life.
• Contrary to the rhetoric that a majority government is more beneficial to securing our constitutional guarantees.

Conclusion

• India's legislatively history (Except for the Nehruvian era) indicates that coalition governments on either side of the aisle show greater allegiance to that cause.
• Of course, this is because coalitions make consultation mandatory and in a nation of such immense diversity like ours, that's a beautiful thing.