Ministries may be asked to seek public view before framing laws

New Delhi: Apparently taking a leaf out of Aam Aadmi Party's strategy, the government is mulling a proposal to make it mandatory for Union Ministries to elicit public opinion before framing legislations.

To take the proposal forward, the Cabinet Secretariat may convene a meeting of Secretaries of the various ministries and departments before a final call is taken on it.

"The proposal requires all central ministries to elicit public views on legislations they want to frame. However, no final view has been firmed up so far," a senior government functionary said.

This has been the main strategy of the AAP and it has employed it successfully, which was reflected in its stunning performance in the recent Delhi Assembly polls.

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If the proposal is accepted, then instructions of the Cabinet secretariat and Parliamentary procedures relating to drafting of legislations will be amended to make it necessary for ministries to get views of the public before sending the proposal to Cabinet.

The ministries can seek the views of the common people, institutions and NGOs by either putting a draft bill in public domain or bringing out a concept paper regarding the legislation.

The respective ministries may also be asked to cite the views accepted in finalising the draft legislation and reasons thereof. However, in cases of emergency, the ministries will be free to approach the Cabinet without getting the public opinion. 

Recently, the Women and Child Development Ministry and the Sports Ministry had put up draft legislations on their website to get views of the public.

"The process will not mean a big delay in enacting laws. It will make the process more transparent...when Parliamentary Standing Committees seek public opinion on bills, it is done at a stage where the bill has already been introduced in Parliament. If this proposal is finalised, then public views will be part of the bill," an official explained.

The Aam Aadmi Party has been advocating the cause of public participation in framing laws.