An overview of the laws passed by the Parliament in 2013

In 2013 the Parliament of Bangladesh has passed 69 laws. Of them, 25 were new general laws, 33 were amending laws, 5 were reintroduced laws, 3 were special laws and 3 were miscellaneous laws.
The first Act of the National Parliament is the Co-operation Society Act. It is an amending Act of the previous Act of 2001.
Some important Acts of 2013 are the International Crimes(Tribunal)(Amendment) Act,2013;The Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act ,2013;The Anti-corruption Commission  (Amendment)Act,2013 ; The Information and Communication Technology Act,2013 Etc.
In Legal view,  Acts no 06 and 07 of 2013 are very important as these have given the enforcement of the ordinances promulgated during President Ziaur Rahman and Mohammad Ershad periods.
As the 5th Amendment and 7th amendment of the Constitution have been repealed; so the question arose what may be the status of the ordinances of those periods. So, both the Acts have been given the enforcement power of the ordinances.

The Government has made an excellent Act named as the Statistics Act , 2013 to measure the population, agriculture, economy and others matter accurately.The another important Act named as Bangladesh Water Act, 2013 has been made for the improvement,management, collection,distribution , usage , protection and preservation of the water. The Act shall be enforceable when the Government fixes any specific date for any specific area in the official Gazette of the Government.The different dates may be fixed for the enforcement of the distinguished sections of the Act.
The Drugs Control (Amendment)Act, 2013 has been made to make the Act more timely. It has forbidden the drugs advertisement and this activity has been made punishable. Another important Act named as the Bnagladesh Rubber Board Act, 2013 has been passed for the improvement of the Rubber Industry in Bangladesh.
Another much debated Act is the Anti-terrorism (Amendment)Act, 2013.Some people have marked it as the most suppressive Act as it may be abused to suppress to opposite parties and anti-ideologies. The Act declared some parties banned as referred in the 2nd schedule . Another important Act named as the Children Act, 2013 has been passed as to give effect of the UN Children Rights Convention.The Act has made provision for the National Children welfare Board. For the children, it has more provisions of children welfare than the previous Act.

The Bank Company (Amendment) Act, 2013 has been made to modernize the existing Act keeping space with existing appeals of time. Another Act named as the Roads Maintenance Fund Board Act, 2013 passed for the maintenance of the  roads under the Department of Roads and Highways. The National River Protection Commission Act, 2013 has been made to prevent the illegal possession of the river,water and environment. Its another purpose is to restitute the normal flow of the river, the proper maintenance of the river and making the river socio-economically important and instituting a river commission to give effect to this Act.
Bangladesh Labour (Amendment)Act, 2013 has been made to comply with the existing appeals of the workers. It may provide them more benefits for their work.
The Bangla Academy Ordinance, 1978 has also been amended to make it more timely .The Bengali spelling of the Bangla Academy has been changed.The Breast Milk Substitudes (Regulation of Marketing) Ordinance,1984 has been amended.The Act has been reintroduced marketing of the substituted breast milk.The Village Courts Act 2000 has been amended to make it more timely. The amount of punishment of the offences in the Act has been increased.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT)Act 2006 has been changed.Tramendously, the amendment has been criticized by many experts. Many concerned experts  term it as a draconian Act. Specially section 57 of the Act has been amended to make the Act more oppressive and to suppress the opposite ideologies and anti-governmental movement. The Act may also violate the freedom of expression;one of the most important constitutional guaranteed rights.
The Pure Food Act has been reintroduced to make complete security of the pure  food. This is absolutely a good Act. Its implementation may develop our food security. The Vested Property Act has been amended more than once to give effect to the Government's election menifesto.
Another important Act named as the the Parents' Maintenance Act,2013 has been introduced firstly in our country. It is a welfare Act as if it is the last shelter of the parents. Under the Act, if any child does not provide his/her parents maintenance without any logical reason or compels them to live in any parents care or any other place, they may get remedy by complaint. And the offender shall be held liable under the Act.
The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention)Act, 2013 has been introduced to give effect to the UN Convention on the Torture and Custodial Death and to guarantee Article 35(5) of the Constitution of Bangladesh. In the new law, for any death in custody, the custodian would be awarded with rigorous life imprisonment or a fine of Tk100, 000. In addition, they must compensate family members of the affected with Tk 200,000.
The Geographical Indication (GI) Act 2013 has been passed. It may protect our own heritage.This is absolutely a good initiative. According to the law, a separate unit will be formed under the Department of Patent, Design and Trademark to operate on works related to the GI products. The unit will conserve a detailed list of the GI products from across the country as a primary database of the local products. The Act may protect the country's claims to commodities such as jamdani saree, hilsa fish, pineapple, nakshi ,kantha, fazli mango and some other famous foods of Bangladesh etc.
Another much debated Act named as the Grameen Bank Act, 2013 has been reintroduced. The Rural Electrification Board Act has been reintroduced to provide more electricity for the rural people.The most debated the Anti-Commission (Amendment)Act, 2013 has also been passed. Many people critised the Act for making an unconstitutional and discriminatory amendment.The Legal Aid Act has also been amended and its aims is to cope with the existing demand of time. Some laws were also about academic institution too.
A public welfare law named the Fulfillment of Vitamin A in Mineral Oil, 2013 has been passed firstly in Bangladesh. The last Act was an amendment of the International Mother language Institute Act. It has also modernized the law with the existing demands of time.
Lastly it may be said that in 2013 the parliament has enacted many laws of which some were nationally important and welfare but some were much debated and callous. The parliament should be much more cautious about its own accountability and transparency to the citizens. It should enact any law for the welfare of the nation as well as the citizens.

The Writer is Research Assistant, Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA).