The Boilers Act needs to be done away with

It is this perception that has changed. That’s the reason we no longer need amendments to the Boilers Act. We no longer need that specific legislation and the specific entry in Seventh Schedule. Boilers are only an example. The entire Seventh Schedule needs a relook

Between 1919 and 1935, what ostensibly changed was the enactment of the Indian Boilers Act. In my view, what really changed was the report of the Boilers Law Committee.

Boilers, that is, steam boilers, have been important enough to engage the attention of both the Union and state governments. Boilers figure as entry number 37 in the Concurrent List. I don’t think anyone paid much attention to boilers in the Constituent Assembly debates. Boilers figured in the “Concurrent Legislative List” (entry no 21) of the Government of India Act of 1935 and got included in the Seventh Schedule by default. In the Government of India Act of 1919, boilers figured in the list of provincial subjects, but warranted no separate entry. They were simply mentioned as a sub-head under industrial matters (entry 26), along with “factories, settlement of labour disputes, electricity, gas and smoke nuisances”.