Monsoon Session 2022: Looking At Some Important Bills To Be Introduced In Parliament This Time

The Monsoon Session of the Parliament will commence on July 18, and as per a bulletin by the Lok Sabha secretariat, 29 bills are to be listed in Parliament, out of which 24 are new bills.

Here are details about important bills expected to be tabled in Monsoon Session 2022.

Trafficking Of Persons (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2022

This bill has been drafted to prevent and combat trafficking, especially among women and children. It focuses on providing care, protection, assistance and rehabilitation to the victims while respecting their rights, creating a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them, and ensuring the prosecution of offenders.

The minimum sentence for a guilty person will be seven years, with a maximum of 10. The fine would range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, as reported by The Print.

Registration Of Press And Periodicals Bill, 2022

This bill is all set to replace the old Press, and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867 and its framing started in 2019. The registration of digital media with the Press Registrar General, who the central government will appoint, is one of its key provisions, thus bringing digital news into its ambit.

The registration process of newspapers has been simplified in its provisions, and it also proposes to do away with the earlier requirement under the PRB Act, 1867, of prosecution of publishers.

It proposed a separate system for the registration of e-papers and sought to remove the existing provision of registration of books from its ambit, as reported by News 18.

The draft bill goes on to say that the Certificate of Registration can be suspended or cancelled by the press registrar general if the periodical's registration was secured on false representation or if it is being published against the provisions of the Act or rules or if the periodical mentioned in the Certificate of Registration bears a title, which is the same as that of any other periodical. A fine of up to Rs 50,000 will be imposed on whoever owns, prints, publishes or edits any periodical without adhering to the provisions.

Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2022

This bill seeks to amend the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, by inter-alia clarifying the applicability of the Act in various types of lands. It also proposes to streamline the approvals under it, as per DNA.

The other important bills that the government will introduce include the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2022 and Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 among others.

The government has also identified 1,824 obsolete laws, and in the upcoming monsoon sessions, it plans to remove 71 such laws to reduce the burden on the judiciary.

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