India Code: A good legal resource

Legal Researchers, looking for material upon Indian law are now really better off as far as the Indian legislation is concerned. Telling from experience, except for the paid websites which have high subscription charges, it has really been a mess finding the enactments in India. We all have had our experience with VakilNo1.com, legalserviceindia.com, ... and our own versions of finding material on Indian law.

But then this treat from the Government of India is really worthwhile and genuine. Titled the India Code [click here for the Code], it contains all Central/Parliamentary legislation in India, right from the oldest [being the Bengal Districts Act of 1836] to the latest [the Central Educations Institutions (Reservation in Education) Act], search able in easy search terms; the 'year' wise and 'free text search' being my favorites. And for non-starters, it also carries a full downloadable list of enactments both alphabetically and chronologically. There is even a link for searching the site in Hindi.

And this not just all. It carries link to other relevant sites like the Law Ministry, Law Commission, Company Law Ministry, National Human Rights Commission, to name a few. There is also a link for searching the text of the Indian Constitution.

A really good attempt at bring the law closer to the people, I will say. But then I look forward for the same treatment being given to the State enactments. No doubts a few states keep updated website with all the links but then the majority of States have simply not adopted the online-governance model and its hard to find even one legislation of their's online. I hope the people in-charge would be listening to this and working a way through.