Justice Lakshmanan New Law Commission Chairman

New Delhi, May 29 (UNI) Retired Supreme Court judge A R Lakshmanan has taken over as Chairman of the Law Commission, a post kept vacant since incumbent M Jagannadha Rao retired nine months ago.

The 18th Commission was reconstituted effective September 1, 2006 for three years, but key posts were not filled. Members are yet to be appointed.

The Commission is to have a member-secretary, three full-time members and an unspecified number of part-time members.

The Commission sees itself as contributing to ''reforming the Law for maximising Justice in society and promoting good governance under the rule of law.'' It was established following demands for an office to recommend revision and updating of inherited laws to serve the changing needs of the country. The Constitution stipulated continuation of pre-Constitution Laws till they are amended or repealed.

The Commission has produced more than 200 reports since the first Law Commission was set up in 1955 with then Attorney-General M C Setalvad as Chairman.

That works out to an average of four Reports a year, a number of which over the past half century have remained unimplemented.

On March 16, a week before he was to retire from the apex court, Justice Lakshmanan broke down in the court just before he was to hear a petition on an investigation into former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's assets.

He told the court he had received an anonymous letter-- ''contents are heinous''-- and recused himself from the petition filed by Yadav's son and Parliament Member Akhilesh Yadav.

The petition sought a review of an order for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into Yadav's alleged disproportionate assets.

UNI