NAC okays pre-legislative norms

Draft will be put on NAC website for public comments, following which it will be finalized & sent to government for further action

The National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi today approved a draft pre-legislative process (PLP) for mandatory consultation with citizens.

The PLP will cover: New laws and amendments to laws; and new rules and amendments to rules.

A working group headed by Aruna Roy had made recommendations on the subject and is seen as a reaction of the government to the pre-legislative discussions it held with civil society prior to drafting the Lok Pal Bill.

However NAC member N C Saxena said thiese were only guidelines meant to formalise existing practices of consultation that precede legislation.

"We are not suggesting a particular format for these consultations," he said.

The draft will be put on the NAC website  for public comments, following which the draft will be finalized and sent to the government for further action.

A statement by the NAC said that mode of Implementation of PLP envisages that an executive order be issued requiring all central ministries to follow the PLP before a legislation is introduced in the Parliament/amendment to Law/formulation of rules/amendments to existing rules.

The guidelines should provide for desirable modes of disclosure and consultations, while details of such processes may be left to be worked out by the Central Ministries/Departments concerned.

The PLP should also  adhere to the principles such as a) transparency, b) inclusiveness and c) equity, the statement said.

Members who attended the meeting were Anu Aga, Dr Narendra Jadhav, Dr Mihir Shah, Prof Pramod Tandon, Aruna Roy,  Naresh Saxena, Ashis Mondal,  Mirai Chatterjee, Farah Naqvi, and Dr A K Shiva Kumar.