Constitution of the Republic of Singapore · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 7 · The Presidential Council for Minority Rights
80. Functions of Council in regard to subsidiary legislation
Feedback & supportAn authenticated copy of every piece of subsidiary legislation shall be sent to the Council by the appropriate Minister within 14 days of the publication of such subsidiary legislation.
Council
“Council” means the Council of Presidential Advisers constituted under Article 37B;
The Council shall thereupon consider such subsidiary legislation and shall, within 30 days of the date on which the subsidiary legislation was sent to the Council, make a report to the Speaker and to the appropriate Minister, stating whether or not in the opinion of the Council any and, if so, which provision of the subsidiary legislation is a differentiating measure.
Speaker
“Speaker” and “Deputy Speaker” mean, respectively, the Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of Parliament;
The Speaker shall cause every report of the Council on every piece of subsidiary legislation to be presented to Parliament on the next sitting day after receiving the Council’s report.
Where an adverse report in respect of any provision of any subsidiary legislation is presented to Parliament in pursuance of clause (3), then, within 6 months after the presentation of that report, unless either —
adverse report
“adverse report” means a report of the Council stating that, in the opinion of the Council, some specified provision of a Bill or of a subsidiary legislation would be a differentiating measure;
the provision has been revoked or amended by the appropriate Minister; or
Parliament has passed a resolution confirming that provision,the appropriate Minister shall revoke such provision and cause a notice of revocation to be published in the Gazette.
If no report on any subsidiary legislation is received from the Council within the time provided in clause (2), it shall be conclusively presumed that the Council is of the opinion that no provision in such subsidiary legislation is a differentiating measure.
differentiating measure
“differentiating measure” means any measure which is, or is likely in its practical application to be, disadvantageous to persons of any racial or religious community and not equally disadvantageous to persons of other such communities, either directly by prejudicing persons of that community or indirectly by giving advantage to persons of another community;