Union Cabinet approves creation of 22nd Law Commission
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the constitution of the 22nd Law Commission which advises the government on complex legal issues.
The term of the previous law panel had ended on August 31 last year.
With the cabinet approval, the law ministry will now notify the new panel, which will have a term of three years.
The panel will have a full-time chairperson, four full-time members (including a member secretary), and law and legislative secretaries in the law ministry as ex-officio members.
"It will also have not more than five part-time members," an official statement said.
Usually, a retired Supreme Court judge or chief justice of a high court heads the Commission.
The Commission was originally constituted in 1955 and is re-constituted every three years.
The various law commissions have so far submitted 277 reports.
The 21st Law Commission, under Justice B S Chauhan (retd), had submitted reports and working papers on key issues such as simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies and a uniform civil code. While this Commission had supported simultaneous polls, it had said time was not ripe for a common code.
In 2015, a proposal was mooted to make the law panel into a permanent body either through an Act of Parliament or an executive order (resolution of the Union Cabinet). The move was, however, shelved after the Prime Minister's Office felt that the present system should continue.
In 2010 too, 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 again shelved.
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ED raids Kolkata Police deputy commissioner, businessman in PMLA probe
Kolkata (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday conducted raids at the premises of Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner Shantanu Sinha Biswas and a local businessman as part of a money laundering probe against an alleged criminal and his linked syndicate in the poll-bound state, officials said.
Two premises of Biswas, including his residence in Ballygunge area and one location of the businessman named Joy Kamdar, Managing Director of a company named Sun Enterprise, have been raided under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Kamdar has been taken by the officials to the local ED office for questioning. Biswas, chief coordinator and nodal officer of the West Bengal and Kolkata Police welfare committee, was not present at his premises, they said.
The action is linked to a money laundering case against an alleged local criminal named Biswajit Podder alias Sona Pappu, who is booked in multiple cases on charges of attempted murder and extortion.
The federal probe agency had conducted the first round of searches in this case on April 1.
The ED had then seized cash of Rs 1.47 crore apart from gold jewellery and silver valued at Rs 67.64 lakh and a country-made revolver from some premises that were searched.
The probe stems from a Kolkata Police FIR against against Podder for his alleged involvement in rioting, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and Arms Act violations. The accused, including Podder, were engaged in organised criminal syndicate activities in the state of West Bengal and generated funds illegally by way of syndicate operations, the ED said in a statement on April 9.
Podder is also wanted by the police in a case of violence in Kankulia road near Golpark of Kolkata and is currently on the run.
The ED has issued summons to Podder but he has failed to join the investigation so far, according to the agency.
West Bengal will have a two phase poll on April 23 and April 29.
