Give reason before pushing for new laws: Cab Sec to Ministries

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) All central governmentsecretaries were today asked to give justification before theypropose a new legislation. As per the new directives of the Cabinet Secretariat, alldepartments will have to explain in detail why a new law needto be enacted and why the purpose cannot be solved throughexisting laws or via an executive order. As per existing norms, each note for consideration of theCabinet or Cabinet Committees should contain a justificationparagraph in which the rationale of the proposal is to bebrought out. "It has been decided that, henceforth, the ministries anddepartments are also required to bring out clearly, in thejustification paragraph of any Cabinet note proposing a newlegislation, the essentiality of the legislation beingproposed and the reasons why the purpose cannot be servedthrough existing legislation or by framing subordinatelegislation or through executive orders etc," the CabinetSecretariat said in a directive to all the secretaries. All secretaries have been asked to strictly adhere to thenew directives. The Cabinet Secretariat has already started the processof scrutinising all bills before these are introduced inParliament. In an earlier communication from the Cabinet Secretariat,all ministries were requested to send to it proposals seekingapproval of the Cabinet for proposed legislation to beintroduced in Parliament well before commencement of a sessionto enable proper scrutiny. The ministries were asked to ensure that any suchproposal is sent to the Cabinet Secretariat well in time,after completing all procedural requirements includingrequisite inter-ministerial consultations. PTI AKVSMN