Friday, September 22 2006 13:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government on yesterday( Sept 21, 2006) decided to reconstitute the Law Commission for a three-year period from September one this year.

The Commission will consist of a chairman, three full-time members, a member-secretary and three or more part-time members.

A decision on this was taken at the Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The chairman and the full-time members may be either serving or retired judges of the Supreme Court or of High Courts. They can also be legal experts, jurists or professors of law in any university in India, an official spokesperson said.

The member secretary should belong to the Indian Legal Service and holding a post of not below the rank of Additional Secretary.

It was decided that the part-time members may be appointed from among eminent members of the Bar or eminent scholars in the academic field or persons having specialised knowledge in the branch of law which is related to the topics under the Commission's consideration. For the first time, the clause which says that the reports of the Commission should be treated as confidential has been dispensed with.