Explained: How Will The Farm Laws be Repealed?

The laws will be repealed in the upcoming session of Parliament, which is likely to start on 29 November.

Image used for representation only.

(Kamran Akhter/The Quint0

Addressing the nation on Friday, 19 November, Prime Minster Narendra Modi announced that his government has decided to repeal the three contentious farm laws.

"Maybe something was lacking in our tapasya, which is why we could not convince some farmers about the laws. So we have decided to repeal the three farm laws,"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Modi added that the three laws will be repealed in the upcoming session of Parliament, which is likely to start on 29 November.

The source of the Parliament's power to repeal laws is the same as the one used to pass laws: Article 245 of the Constitution of India.

How a Law is Repealed in India

The Prime Minister and the Executive branch of government cannot repeal a law unilaterally, as a legislation gets its authority from being passed in Parliament, not because of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's seal of approval.

The method of doing this is through a Repealing Act, ie a legislation which repeals the law in question. Normally, the government will repeal and modify a whole bunch of laws together at a time, in the form of a Repealing and Amending Act.

The Modi government has passed a number of these Repealing and Amending Acts since coming to power to clear off old and archaic laws from the statute book. Many of the Finance Acts used for the budget each year also include repealing and amending provisions.

In terms of standalone Repealing Acts, the most notable one in recent times was the Prevention of Terrorism (Repealing) Act 2004, which repealed the draconian POTA anti-terror low.

To get rid of the farm laws, the Modi government can introduce separate Repealing Acts in Parliament in the upcoming Winter Session, or pass a single Repealing Act which repeals all three.

At this time, it is believed that the government will introduce a single Repealing Act for all three farm laws.

There is no special procedure for Repealing Acts per se. Like any regular legislation, they have to pass both Houses of Parliament and get Presidential assent. Like other laws, they can either be specified to come into force immediately upon getting the President's assent, or at a future date.