Colonial laws need to go
Apropos the edit ?Archaic Laws? (FE, August 29), the Union government has the right idea in calling for a review of all laws of the British era to end these colonial laws that have no relevance now. Already self-attested affidavits are set to replace old tradition of getting these attested by gazetted officers. Revenue-stamp is required for receipts of amounts over a specified limit which is now R5,000 even though payment is made through banks. This is a useless colonial practice which needs to be abolished altogether. Rather, signed receipts become useless in case the gluing of the revenue-stamps is not proper, because major portion of signature vanishes in case poorly gummed revenue-stamp is somehow removed from the signed receipt as the signature made on a revenue-stamp. Union government should do away with requirement of revenue-stamps for any receipt either by cash or through bank. If needed, special receipt-papers printed at the government?s printing-press, on the lines of stamp-papers may be introduced. But such receipt-papers should be made conveniently available at all post-offices and bank-branches (private and public-sector) apart from other convenience centres by having a sale-commission. The Centre should also consider abolishing the office of Notary Public and Oath Commissioners, which just authenticates documents for a fees without actually verification procedure. The colonial practice of having special legal-size paper for use in courts should also be abolished by replacing these with normal A-4 size papers because most photo-copiers used at homes and offices are equipped to copy papers of A-4 size. If necessary, court-papers can be in distinct colours?for example, green papers are used at the Madras High Court.
SC Agrawal
Delhi
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