Sanskruti Rajpure, Institute of Law, Nirma University
Introduction
The legal issues that the general laws fail to address are addressed by the special and local laws. The special laws tend to focus on a specific kind of criminal activity. Such laws are in most cases product of legislation by the state. They are customised to fit the local customs, culture and needs. Special laws are based on a particular subject matter, in order to heed the needs of specific situation, groups or sector. Scope of the subject matters is wide giving a way to enact such acts on wide areas i.e. Labour laws, Security related laws, intellectual property laws, healthcare etc. Most often the special laws are central in nature and passed by a higher authority. Enactment of the special laws lead to formation of special courts and tribunals. These judicial and quasi-judicial organs have power to interpret the special provisions and award appropriate remedy in case of distress. Any amendment is subject to legislative process as it is an outcome of legislation. In case of conflict and contradiction between general and specific laws the later will prevail. “Generalia specialibus non derogant”. Local laws are geographic in nature, they attend to particular region and its population. They are a tool to regulate and govern the diverse population and demographic. Their applicability is limited to the locality out of which they do not have any jurisdiction. The subject matters mainly are about land, education, urban development, police and local taxations. These laws a product of State legislations, each state has its own land revenue laws, specific police laws and separate education laws. The local or decentralized form of government (municipal corporations or panchayat) also takes part in laws making. When making such laws the Municipal bodies focus on ease of governance, while panchayats are more concerned about preservation of customs and practises. They tend to be flexible, and simple to modify.
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