Time for Transparency of Rules Act

The fundamental aspect of efficient functioning of a state is that citizens are aware of laws, rules, regulations and procedures they are expected to follow. ‘Rule of law’ is based on the working assumption that citizens are aware of laws and follow them. Thus, ignorance of law is no excuse and is not accepted as defence.

However, a major problem in India is that an ordinary citizen cannot easily access and navigate through multitude of laws, rules, regulations, procedures, exemptions etc imposed by different tiers of government. To add to the problem, changing laws makes it even more difficult to follow. It is not only the citizens who struggle, even government officials find it hard to keep abreast with the updated versions of laws and rules. This also causes delays and inefficiency in the system.

To illustrate this problem let us look at something as simple as violation of traffic rules in the national capital. Firstly, it is incredible that citizens cannot easily find updated penalties for traffic violations in Delhi. Secondly, whatever little information is available on the website of Delhi Traffic Police is outdated, unclear and undated.

For example, the undated ‘Traffic Offences and Penalties’ page (https://traffic.delhipolice.gov.in/traffic-offences) on Delhi Traffic Police’s official website has a list of 73 traffic offenses and corresponding penalties. According to it, it seems that there is no penalty for some of the serious traffic offenses in Delhi. For instance, penalty for “Jumping Red Light” is zero rupees. Penalties for “Drunken Driving”, “Offences relating to Juvenile”, “Dangerous Goods by common carrier” and “Driving Dangerously” are also surprisingly zero rupees!!

The case for easy and updated access to laws is not new. Even courts, including the Supreme Court, (SC) have time and again reiterated the need for dissemination and easy access of laws and rules. In Harla v. The State of Rajasthan (1951), the SC had held that natural justice required that before a law became operative it must be promulgated or published “in some recognisable way so that all men may know what it is”.

Despite rapid technological advancement and enviable Digital Public Infrastructure,

we are still bereft of one comprehensive and updated online platform to access all the laws and rules we are expected to follow. Though laws are published in various gazettes of the government, they are not easily accessible to the general public.

One initiative to fill this gap is the India Code portal (https://www.indiacode.nic.in/). The portal is supposed to contain all the acts, subordinate legislation, rules, regulations, notifications, orders, circulars, ordinances and statutes issued under a particular act. Though a commendable effort, the portal falls short of expectations as it is not regularly updated with accompanying documents and states’ amendments to central acts. Central Motor Vehicles Rules is a case in point. The latest rules under the said Act available on India Code is the Central Motor Vehicles (Eighteenth Amendment) Rules of 2017 while the authors could dig the twenty sixth amendment rules (2021) under the Act. Also, India Code does not have the timeline feature that can enable users to view legislations in its amended form as at any date the change came into effect.

A good example of a one-stop source for all the laws and rules is the Legislation.gov.uk website in the United Kingdome. The website is the official home for all legislation and their accompanying documents enacted in the UK dating as far back as 1267 (including Magna Carta) to present. It also includes statutory instruments and local acts where citizens can scroll through the changes made over time including the latest available version, original as enacted, and all the corresponding amendments.

To end this asymmetry of information regarding citizen facing rules and enhance legal literacy and awareness among citizens, the Economic Survey 2016-17 had suggested implementation Transparency of Rules Act (TORA). The proposed legislation would make it mandatory for all the ministries and departments to publish and update, in real-time, all the citizen-facing laws, rules, regulations, procedures, exemptions and other essential requirements on their respective websites and portals like India Code.

TORA is not just about making portals like India Code function effectively. It is also about giving it a legislative teeth by enforcing the following elements:

• All the citizens facing rules, regulations, procedures, exemptions and other essential requirements should be easily accessible on the websites and the dedicated portal.

• Once a Ministry or a Department is declared TORA compliant, officials should not be allowed to impose rules that are not explicitly published on the website or the portal.

• Laws, rules and regulations placed on websites and the portal should be presented as an updated unified whole and not as a series of endless circulars.

• TORA will also specify that the portal and websites clearly mention the date and time each change is made with a clear time-stamp. This will help citizens know from which point in time the rule came into existence and which are the ones that cease to exist.

TORA will be a significant value addition to the Digital India Mission which aims to achieve digital access, enhance ease of living and reduce the distance between government and citizens.

Sanjeev Sanyal is Member, and Jayasimha is consultant, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). Views express are personal.