The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue. That was Oliver Goldsmith writing a long time ago. Looking at the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act 2006, it appears that the laws in India do much more — they reward vice by legalising the violations of law committed with impunity by all concerned — the public, the building mafia, the local authorities and the politicians.

Clearly, the Government of India was in an unseemly hurry in legislating and passing the Act. Not only was it exempted from the mandatory seven-day notice for parliamentary consideration, it was extremely poorly drafted. Even the title of the legislation was misleading. It gave no idea about the purpose of the legislation. The law — which has just come into force — does not use the term “unauthorised constructions” anywhere. It prefers, instead, to deploy the phrase “unauthorised development”. The Bill’s statement of objects and reasons put a considerable spin on the issue. It argued that this law is necessary in order to enable the government to take all possible measures for the “finalisation of norms, policy guidelines and feasible strategies” to deal with the problems of unauthorised constructions so that, as Section 3 of the Act says, the “development of Delhi can take place in a sustainable and planned manner”. Section 3 gives one year to the government to frame relevant policies. It prescribes “status quo as on the 1st day of January, 2006 shall be maintained in respect of categories of unauthorised development” mentioned in the law.

... contd.