New Delhi: Union Minister for Disinvestment, Information Technology (IT) and Communications Arun Shourie on February 16 called for a change in the country's law- making system to incorporate "sunset" provisions for every Law and making legal system agile to incorporate technological changes rapidly.

"We should have a system of broadly stated principles like the US Constitution, which has just 14 Articles and every Law should have a 'sunset' provision (expiry period). The executive should be given power to alter it (Law) as per the changing needs," he said at the inauguration of a conference of Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA).

Instead of incorporating every possible contingency and solution, the Law making should have a transitional regime and a general principle of Law, particularly for technology sensitive sectors like IT and telecom, he said.

"At one point of time, use of cordless telephones at homes was regarded violation of Telegraph Act of 1885. Today we have court battles on limited and unlimited mobilities (over mobile phones)… Tomorrow cable operators would be able to offer telephony services via his cable. Now if you prosecute him for violation of his license (that provided for only broadcast of television channels), you are hampering progress of technology and service to consumer," Shourie said.

Shourie was apparently referring to the ongoing battle between cellular phone service providers and the limited mobility service offered by fixed line operators like Reliance and Tatas using the CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.

He said the legal system should have a review mechanism to address the changing needs and all regimes should have transition clauses.

In an apparent reference to the ongoing legal tussle between cellular phone service providers and CDMA technology, Shourie said, "Each and every time a new service is introduced, litigations arise and what follows is controversy. This is because our Law is not agile to keep pace with technology."

While cellular operators contend that they alone have the license to offer mobility and operators like Reliance and Tatas should pay license fee for offering such services, the CDMA technology providers contend that technological advancement has changed the rule of the game.

Stating that government should be technological neutral, he said, "Government must not resist technological change… there should be no ad hoc interventions by government."

He had a piece of advice for dispute tribunals. "Tribunals should not follow strict legalistic approach. There is a need to redesign and reorient the dispute settlement mechanism."

Lauding country's technological prowess in IT and space technology, Shourie said India was the second fastest growing economy in the world during the past seven years.

"While the countries world over are projecting 1.5 to two per cent growth as healthy, the debate in India is that if the growth rate falls below six per cent it is recession," he said.

India has broken the myth of a famine-hit nation with over 62 million tonnes of food grain stock in government godowns. Its foreign exchange reserves are rising by $ one billion a month and currently totalling $ 73 billion, he said.

PTI