Economist Sanjeev Sanyal, a key advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has unveiled plans for a significant reform aimed at simplifying India's complex legal landscape. Speaking at ASSOCHAM's India Business Reforms Summit 2026, Sanyal highlighted the pervasive inefficiency caused by citizens and businesses struggling to access and understand the latest versions of laws and regulations.
Addressing Legal Inaccessibility
Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, criticized the current system where legal compliance is expected despite the difficulty in finding clear, up-to-date statutes. He noted that even basic information, such as traffic fines, was not always readily accessible, making it challenging for people to follow the law effectively.
"Essentially, one of the major inefficiencies of our system is that we have all these rules and regulations, but nobody knows what the latest version of it is at any time," Sanyal stated. "Every citizen, every business should have a fair chance of finding out what the law is. And that is entirely unclear in this country."
The 'Transparency of Rules Act' Proposal
To rectify this, Sanyal is advocating for a proposed "Transparency of Rules Act." This legislation would mandate that all rules and regulations applicable to citizens be consolidated and clearly presented in one central location on an official website. A crucial aspect of this proposal is that the version of the law displayed on this website at any given time would be considered the legally binding text.
Sanyal emphasized that every change to the law on the website must be timestamped. This would ensure that citizens know precisely when a rule came into effect, preventing retrospective application or unfair penalties for not following recently updated, unannounced regulations. He illustrated with a hypothetical example: if an incorrect law is posted, that version applies until officially changed, ensuring accountability.
Modernizing Legal Communication
The economist also took aim at India's outdated reliance on numerous circulars and amendments scattered across various documents. He argued that this "circular business belongs to the print era" and that in the digital age, laws should be presented as complete, amended documents on the website, rather than a series of disparate updates.
While acknowledging that implementing such a reform would encounter institutional resistance, as it would diminish a "major power" from the bureaucracy, Sanyal believes the initiative would be cost-effective. He stressed that public pressure would be vital to push this common-sense reform forward, liberating citizens and businesses to focus on productivity rather than navigating legal ambiguities.