Law Commission of India: Origins, Mandate & Reports

Law Commission of India is a body periodically constituted by the Government of India to examine India's laws and recommend reforms, including the removal of outdated provisions and the codification of new ones. It has no place in the text of the Constitution; it exists only because the Union government chooses to set it up afresh from time to time, giving it a fixed, short life rather than a permanent one.

Origins

The first Law Commission of independent India was established in 1955, with M.C. Setalvad as its chairman. Since then, the Commission has been reconstituted repeatedly rather than continued as a standing body — twenty-two Law Commissions have been appointed so far, each serving a term of three years before its recommendations are submitted and the body is wound up, to be reconstituted later under a fresh mandate.

This pattern of repeated, term-bound reconstitution is itself a defining feature: unlike bodies created once and continued indefinitely, the Law Commission has to be revived by the government of the day if the exercise is to continue. Any gap between one Commission's term ending and the next one being notified means India is, for that period, without a functioning Law Commission.

In the standard classification of India's official bodies, the Law Commission is grouped with the likes of NITI Aayog, the National Human Rights Commission, the Central Vigilance Commission, the Bar Council of India and the Delimitation Commission of India as a "non-constitutional" body — meaning its existence and functioning are not provided for anywhere in the constitutional text itself.

Mandate

The recurring mandate given to each Law Commission has centred on two broad tasks: recommending reforms connected with the Constitution, and undertaking the codification of laws — that is, consolidating and updating scattered or dated legal provisions into clearer, more usable form. Because each Commission is reconstituted with fresh terms of reference, the precise subjects taken up have varied from one Commission to the next, but the underlying purpose across all twenty-two has remained the same: to study specific areas of law and place reasoned recommendations before the government.

The 170th Report and Electoral Law Reform

One documented instance of the Commission's work concerns the anti-defection provisions of the Tenth Schedule. In its 170th Report, titled "Reform of Electoral Laws" (1999), the Law Commission of India examined the working of the Tenth Schedule and recommended doing away with the clause that exempted legislators from disqualification in cases of a "split" in their party.

This was not an isolated recommendation. The Dinesh Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms had flagged the same split-exemption provision in its 1990 report, and the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) repeated the recommendation in its own report in 2002. The convergence of three separate bodies — a government committee, the Law Commission, and a constitutional review commission — on the same point illustrates how the Commission's reports are typically one strand in a wider, sustained reform debate rather than a one-off intervention that produces immediate legislative change.

Why the Law Commission Matters

Because it is reconstituted rather than permanent, and advisory rather than binding, the Law Commission's influence depends entirely on whether the government of the day chooses to act on its reports. Its value for the polity lies less in any power to compel change and more in the sustained, expert documentation it builds up over successive terms — record that later committees, courts, and legislators can and do draw upon, as the Tenth Schedule example shows.

Feature	Law Commission of India
First constituted	1955, under M.C. Setalvad
Number of Commissions (so far)	Twenty-two
Term	Three years per Commission
Constitutional basis	None — a non-constitutional body
Core mandate	Constitutional reform recommendations and codification of laws
Example output	170th Report (1999), "Reform of Electoral Laws"

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

The Law Commission of India is a non-constitutional body, not mentioned in the Constitution.
The first Law Commission of independent India was set up in 1955 under M.C. Setalvad.
Each Law Commission is given a three-year term.
The 170th Report of the Law Commission (1999) dealt with "Reform of Electoral Laws," including the Tenth Schedule.

Mains

Discuss the role of non-constitutional, non-permanent advisory bodies such as the Law Commission of India in shaping legal and electoral reform in India.
Examine, with reference to the Tenth Schedule, how recommendations from bodies like the Law Commission, the Dinesh Goswami Committee, and the NCRWC have converged on similar reform proposals over time.

FAQ

Q1. What is the Law Commission of India? It is a body periodically set up by the Government of India to study laws in force and recommend reforms, including codification, on subjects referred to it.

Q2. When was the Law Commission of India first constituted, and who chaired it? The first Law Commission of independent India was constituted in 1955, chaired by M.C. Setalvad.

Q3. Is the Law Commission of India a constitutional body? No. It does not derive its existence from the Constitution; it is classed among India's non-constitutional bodies and is set up afresh by the government from time to time.

Q4. How long does each Law Commission serve? Each Law Commission is given a term of three years.

Q5. What did the Law Commission's 170th Report recommend? The 170th Report (1999), "Reform of Electoral Laws," recommended removing the Tenth Schedule provision that exempted legislators from disqualification in the event of a split in their party — a recommendation also made separately by the Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990) and the NCRWC (2002).

Quick Revision

First Law Commission: 1955, chaired by M.C. Setalvad.
Twenty-two Law Commissions constituted so far.
Each Commission's term: three years.
Non-constitutional body — no mention in the Constitution.
Core mandate: constitutional reform recommendations + codification of laws.
170th Report (1999): "Reform of Electoral Laws" — recommended removing the Tenth Schedule split-exemption clause.
Same reform also urged by the Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990) and the NCRWC (2002).

Sources

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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Law Commission of India

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