Important Laws:

Polity is an important part of the Civil Services exam at all

stages (Prelims, Mains and Personality Test). Most
aspirants cover just the Constitution due to the
availability of good resources like Laxmikanth. However,
Polity also includes laws and policies of the government.
The following are some important laws, in my opinion,
for both Prelims and Mains.
[Usual disclaimer: list is non-exhaustive. Will keep adding
to it as I think of more stuff]
Social Welfare
1. Street Vendors Act, 2014
2. National Food Security Act, 2013
3. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013
4. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013
5. Right to Education Act, 2009
6. The Scheduled Tribes and other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act), 2006
7. Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996
Women/Child Welfare
Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013
Domestic Violence Act, 2005
PCPNDT Act, 1994
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000
Child Labour Laws in India
Governance
1. Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013
2. The Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time-bound Delivery of Services) Act, 2011
3. Right to Information Act, 2005 (Always important, know all the provisions)
Other traditional favourites of UPSC
1. Representation of Peoples Act (RPA), 1950 and RPA, 1951 (Very important this year, read every line thoroughly)
2. Laws on Consumer Protection
3. Laws on Alternate Dispute Redressal

How to read these laws?
For each of these laws, you must know:
Objectives of the Act
Provisions / Salient Features of the Act
Any institutions created by the Act
Critical analysis of the Act
For the first three items, I get my information straight
from the bare act. Read even the preamble, which
specifies the objectives of the law. A question was asked
before (maybe 2011) on the preamble of the RTI Act.
For the critical analysis part, you may refer to any
editorials in The Hindu or the PRS website to spice up
your answer