State Law Commission formed

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday constituted a six-member Law Commission which will be chaired by Justice Biswanath Rath, former judge of Orissa High Court. As per a notification is-sued by the State Law department, the commission will have a total of six members, including the chairperson.

“The State Government do hereby appoint Justice Biswanath Rath as the Chairperson, Surya Prakash Mishra, Sr. Advocate, and Soura Chandra Mohapatra, Sr. Advocate, as Members of the Odisha State Law Commission,” reads the notification.

This apart, the Advocate General of Odisha, Pitambar Acharya, and Principal Secretary to the Law department, will be the ex officio members of the committee. Additional Secretary of the State Law de-partment will be the member secretary of the commission. As per reports, the commission has been constituted to review the existing State laws as well as the laws pertaining to the State in the Concur-rent List. It will examine the necessity of continuance of the various State laws and recommend with-drawal, substitution and modification in part or in whole.

The Law Commission will also examine any proposal for modification in the existing laws and to invite suggestions from eminent persons or legal experts on the proposals for modifications. It will offer sug-gestions to the State government for rectification of defects in the existing laws and repeal of laws which are no longer relevant.

“I want to first convey my thanks to the State government for giving me the opportunity to recommend amendments in some existing laws, and suggest new laws in place of obsolete ones.

The commission has been constituted to give opinion to the government about any changes needed in the State laws and repeal of obsolete laws,” said retired Justice Biswanath Rath on Friday.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in November had said that the State government has initiated the process to identify obsolete laws to phase them out.