The Great Repeal

The idea

Picture a man who runs a small food-processing unit in Coimbatore. Today a compliance consultant visits him every month with a thick file of filings, many under laws written before his grandfather was born. A year from now he opens one public register on his phone, sees the short list of duties that apply to him, files them himself in an afternoon, and spends the rest of the month on his customers.

Picture a young lawyer in Delhi, one of two thousand, checking AI flags on a public tracker. Every proposed repeal names the section, gives a one-line reason and invites comment from anyone in the country.

I believe good law is short, clear and easy to find. Laws pile up like sediment: each one made sense once, and together they bury the honest citizen and slow every business. Our rules grew one at a time, each for its own moment. Now, for the first time, we have a tool that can read all of them at once.

We have been cleaning up one batch at a time for years, and it has helped. The candid truth is that at that pace the job takes generations. So we can do it the way Korea did in 1998: review everything, keep what matters, and clear the rest in one go.

Why now

The load is heavy. A business in India tracks about 69,233 compliance items, and about 2 in every 5 can send someone to jail.

The piecemeal path is slow. The Repealing and Amending Act 2025 cleared 71 laws, good work that shows how much more is waiting.

The return is enormous. If 1 crore formal businesses each save ₹50,000 a year, that is about ₹50,000 crore a year (estimate), for a year-1 cost of about ₹170 crore.

And the tools exist. In April 2025 the UAE set up a Regulatory Intelligence Office that uses AI to track laws and propose updates.

The big moves

Here is one clear path, step by step. The details belong to the Chief Law Reviewer, Parliament and the states.

1. First, set up one office on day one. A Cabinet resolution creates an AI Law Review Office shared by the Legislative Department, the Law Commission and NITI Aayog, led by a Chief Law Reviewer of cabinet-minister rank who reports to the Prime Minister (Chapter 12).

2. Next, read everything in 30 days, in public. AI reads every central Act, rule, regulation and circular and tags each provision: repeal, merge into a sector code, turn jail into a fine, or keep. At least two certified Indian AI models tag every provision, two lawyers check every flag, and every tag appears on a public tracker for comment. The Constitution, the criminal codes, the Contract Act, fundamental-rights and safety laws, national security laws and the remaining tax laws sit on a protected list.

3. Then, pass one Great Repeal Act within 90 days. One omnibus Bill carries the whole list in four schedules: laws repealed, laws merged into about 40 sector codes, jail clauses turned into civil fines, and regulator circulars withdrawn. The goal, for example, is to lift 90% of the non-protected load, counted from the day-30 baseline and certified by the CAG.

4. Then, let the rest earn its place by day 365. Every remaining non-protected law goes on a published sunset list. Parliament reviews each one and re-enacts what it values in one Laws Continuance Act; the rest retires on day 365.

5. Finally, keep the book lean for good. From day 366, every law on the books, old and new, carries a 10-year sunset: it lapses automatically unless Parliament renews it after a public review. It is one principle for the whole state: laws expire after 10 years and every continuous government role after 5 (Chapter 12), unless each re-earns its place. Laws kept in the Continuance Act get staggered sunset dates, so about a tenth come up each year and no law lives on by default. Every new law or rule also removes an equal or larger load. Every duty lives on one public compliance register. States join on the same model, with the Centre paying them for each compliance item they remove (Chapter 28).

6. Alongside, every law looks forward. A new law, tax or rule applies only from the day it is made, so every deal done under today's rules stays settled under them. The single exception is a blatant abuse: a scheme built mainly to defeat a law's plain purpose. Even then, an independent tribunal decides on clear proof, undoes only the gain from the scheme, adds no penalty or interest for the past, and reaches back no further than the day the loophole was publicly announced for closure. Investors at home and abroad can plan for decades on the rules they see today.

Today vs the new way

Here is how the rulebook compares for a business, today and after the Great Repeal.

The new way gives every citizen and business a short, clear, findable rulebook, at a tiny cost for a very large return.

Proof it works

Australia lets rules expire on their own. Since its Legislation Act of 2003, Australia's regulations lapse automatically after 10 years unless the government remakes them, and thousands of outdated instruments have quietly fallen away without a single repeal debate.

South Korea halved its rules in one year. During the 1998 Asian financial crisis, a new Regulatory Reform Committee cut more than half of the country's regulations within a year. It also made every regulation register or lapse, and added sunset dates of typically 5 years.

The United Kingdom cleared hundreds in one Act. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 revoked about 600 laws in one schedule, after reviewing a stock of more than 4,000.

Australia held a Repeal Day. In 2014 it put forward the repeal of nearly 10,000 regulations and Acts in one go, with a claimed saving to business of more than A$700 million a year.

India itself shows the value of looking forward. In 2012 a Finance Act change taxed overseas share deals with Indian assets going back to 1962. Vodafone, which had bought Hutch's Indian business for about $11 billion in 2007 and won its case in the Supreme Court, faced a demand of about ₹11,218 crore, and Cairn about ₹31,881 crore. Both took India to international arbitration and won. In 2021 Parliament passed the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, which dropped these demands and refunded about ₹8,100 crore to companies that withdrew their cases. Investor confidence returned, and the lesson is clear: certainty pays more than any single tax demand.

We have already repealed more than 1,500 laws. India has cleared over 1,500 obsolete central laws since 2014 through omnibus Acts, so Parliament knows the method well.

What success looks like

• In the first 30 days: every central instrument is tagged, checked and published with reasons, and the draft Great Repeal Bill is ready.
• Within 1 year: the Great Repeal Act is passed by day 90, and the Laws Continuance Act by month 11.
• Within 1 year: at least 10 states have passed their own Great Repeal Acts.
• Within 1 year: every law in force carries a published sunset date, at most 10 years away.
• Within 1 year: the forward-only rule for every civil and tax law is written into the Constitution (Chapter 28).
• After year 1: the CAG publishes the verified before-and-after count of Acts, compliance items and jail clauses, and one-in-one-out keeps the stock lean every year.

Guardrail ideas

Ideas to start the conversation, for the builders, experts and the public to shape together.

• AI flags; people decide. Two lawyers check every flag, Parliament votes on the whole list, and any model above a 2% error rate pauses until fixed.
• Rights and cases carry on. Pending cases, rights, licences and contracts made under a repealed law continue in full, as the General Clauses Act already provides.
• Every protection finds a home. Every repeal names the harm the law prevented and what covers it afterwards, and safety and environment rules move to fines rather than disappear.
• No law lapses by surprise. The sunset list is published 2 years ahead, each law gets a public review a year before its date, and laws that protect rights, safety and security get a mandatory renewal vote, running on for at most 1 year if the vote is late.
• Every law looks forward, and abuse is closed narrowly. A law, tax or rule binds only from the day it is made. Undoing a blatant abuse needs a finding by an independent tribunal of three retired judges, on clear and convincing proof that the scheme's main purpose was to defeat the law's stated purpose. The tribunal undoes only the gain, reaches back no further than the date the closure was publicly announced, adds no penalty or interest for the past, and every finding is published with reasons. Anyone who followed the law and the published official guidance in good faith is fully protected.
• Mistakes are fixed in days. A provision repealed by mistake is revived by Gazette notification within 7 days of a verified report, with a 24-hour hotline to report any gap.

FAQs

Q: What if the AI gets something wrong?

A: People make every decision, and AI simply does the reading. Two independent lawyers check every flag, the public comments on every item, and Parliament votes on the whole list. A provision repealed by mistake is revived within 7 days.

Q: Will safety and environmental protections disappear?

A: They stay, often in a simpler form. Safety and environment rules can move from jail to fines, and every repeal names what covers the harm afterwards. The Act only lifts or softens duties, and every change is shown by sector at least 14 days before the vote.

Q: Won't a useful law lapse just because Parliament is busy?

A: The sunset makes every law prove it is still useful, and the calendar makes that easy. Every date is known years ahead, a committee reviews each law a year early, and a good law is renewed in one vote. Laws that guard rights and safety cannot lapse without a vote. What disappears is only what nobody stands up for.

Q: Doesn't a ban on retrospective laws let clever schemes escape?

A: It gives honest business full certainty and still closes real abuse. A scheme built mainly to defeat a law's purpose can be undone by an independent tribunal on clear proof, from the day the loophole was announced for closure. The tribunal takes back only the gain, never a penalty, and never for revenue. Everyone else plans with confidence on the rules they see.

Q: Can Parliament really pass this in 90 days?

A: Yes, because the method is familiar. Parliament has passed omnibus repeal Acts before, a joint committee reports within 30 days, and debate runs by schedule. Where needed, the Constitution provides a joint sitting of both Houses.

The detailed blueprint for this chapter, a starting draft for the mission heads, industry and the private sector to refine, is in the Implementation Annex.