PIB TrackerA citizen friction test, and joint issue papers within six months
The Law Commission conference that opened as an announcement closed with a method: a common law-reform docket, post-enactment review, and State Law Commissions placing their first joint papers before their governments in about six months.
What happened
- The 23rd Law Commission of India held its National Conference on "Co-operative Federalism and Law Reforms" at Vigyan Bhawan, with State law-reform institutions, jurists, former judges, scholars and the Bar.
- The Vice-President said co-operative federalism in law reform does not imply uniformity in every matter, cited the replacement of three colonial-era criminal laws and the repeal of over 1,700 obsolete laws in twelve years, and asked State Law Commissions to identify laws for repeal.
- The Minister of State for Law and Justice set four priorities - continuous institutional dialogue, evidence-based and participatory reform, technology with human oversight, citizen-centric legal design - and invoked Article 1 and Ambedkar on India as a Union of States.
- Justice (Retd.) Dinesh Maheshwari proposed a common law-reform docket, joint studies, post-enactment review and a "citizen friction test" measuring whether a law reduces time, cost and procedural burden - with first joint issue papers in about six months.
- His framing: "For the citizen, justice is not divided between the Lists of the Seventh Schedule." The Member Secretary added that the task is not to make every State think alike but to ensure no State has to think alone.
For Prelims
- The Law Commission is an executive body. It is constituted by government resolution for a fixed term, not by the Constitution or a statute, and its reports are recommendatory. The first post-independence Commission was set up in 1955 under M. C. Setalvad.
- The three new criminal codes replacing the colonial statutes are the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (for the IPC), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (CrPC) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (Indian Evidence Act), in force from 1 July 2024.
- Repeal of obsolete laws runs through the Repealing and Amending Acts and the work of the two-member committee of 2014 and the Law Commission's 248th to 251st reports; the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023 decriminalised minor offences across 42 central Acts, and is the model being invoked for a trust-based framework.
- Post-enactment or post-legislative scrutiny is standard in the United Kingdom through departmental memoranda to select committees; India has no equivalent requirement, which is why a proposal for systematic review matters more than it sounds.
- Article 1 describes India as a "Union of States" - Ambedkar explained in the Constituent Assembly that the phrase was chosen because the federation was not the result of an agreement among States and no State has a right to secede.
- Pre-legislative consultation was recommended by the 2014 Policy on Pre-Legislative Consultation, which asks ministries to publish draft legislation for 30 days - compliance has been patchy, and a joint docket with the States would extend the same logic horizontally.
- State Law Commissions exist in only a minority of States, with varying statutory or executive bases and little research staff; Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have had functioning bodies at different times.
- The Punchhi (2007) and Sarkaria (1983) Commissions both recommended consultation with States before the Union legislates on Concurrent List subjects - the recommendation this conference is, in effect, trying to operationalise.
For UPSC: The rare case where a conference produced a method rather than a communique, and a test you can cite by name. Deploy it on co-operative federalism, on law reform and decriminalisation, and on citizen-centric governance.
What it is NOT: No funding, no secretariat and no statutory basis for the common docket, and no count of how many States actually have a Law Commission to join it. The 1,700 repeals are a Union figure with no State-wise equivalent, and no list of the laws is given. Nothing on how the "citizen friction test" would be applied or by whom, no agenda for the first joint issue papers, and no indication whether the six-month suggestion has been accepted by any State government. The conference's own recommendations were not published with the release.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.2 · GS2.15 · Linkage L1
Anchor
The 23rd Law Commission's national conference on co-operative federalism closed with a proposed common law-reform docket, joint studies, post-enactment review and a "citizen friction test", and with a suggestion that participating Law Commissions place first joint issue papers before their governments within about six months.
Substantiation (data)
The Vice-President cited the replacement of three colonial-era criminal laws and the repeal of more than 1,700 obsolete laws in twelve years, and asked State Law Commissions to identify outdated laws for repeal. The Law Minister of State set out four priorities - continuous institutional dialogue, evidence-based and participatory reform, technology with human oversight, citizen-centric legal design. The Chairperson framed the test as whether a reform reduces the citizen's time, cost and procedural burden.
Position
This is what a working institution looks like. A docket of shared subjects, joint studies and a standing habit of reviewing laws after they are passed would change law reform from an occasional event into a process - and the friction test puts the burden of proof where it belongs, on whether the citizen's experience improves. The six-month deadline is modest enough to be credible.
Counterpoint
The machinery still has no engine. The Law Commission cannot compel anyone, most States have no Law Commission or one without research capacity, and no funding or secretariat was announced for a common docket. Repealing 1,700 obsolete laws is also the easiest kind of reform; the friction a citizen actually meets lies in State rules, municipal procedure and departmental practice, none of which a law reform docket reaches.
Way forward
Publish the conference recommendations and the first joint docket, with a named subject list. Fund State Law Commissions on the model of State Finance Commissions, make post-enactment review a standing requirement with a reporting format, and apply the friction test to subordinate legislation, where most of the burden sits.
Conclusion
A conference that left with homework and a date. Whether the six months produce issue papers or a photograph is the only test that matters now.
Deploys into: Co-operative federalism and law reform · Post-legislative scrutiny · Decriminalisation and Jan Vishwas · Citizen-centric governance
Ministry of Law and Justice · 2026-10-22 · PRID 2326670 · PIB source ↗