Lok Sabha Passes 3 Criminal Law Bills

Lok Sabha passed the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill in the absence of 97 opposition MPs who are under...

Ruby Thakur
December 21, 2023
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Lok Sabha passed the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill in the absence of 97 opposition MPs who are under suspension. The bills aim to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act.

Lok Sabha Passes 3 Criminal Law Bills

Why In News

Lok Sabha passed the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill in the absence of 97 opposition MPs who are under suspension. The bills aim to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act.

Three Criminal Law Bills

Presenting the bills, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said they focussed on “Indianness, the Indian Constitution and the well-being of the people”. He said the British-era laws were aimed at protecting foreign rulers, while the new bills were people centric.

The three bills to reform criminal laws were first introduced in Lok Sabha on August 11 during the monsoon session of Parliament as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023. will replace the Indian Penal Code of 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) of 1973 and Indian Evidence Act, of 1872.
They were subsequently referred to a department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by Brij Lal for further examination which submitted its reports on November 10.

Pertinently, instead of amending the bills as per the committee’s suggestions, the Central government on August 11 chose to withdraw the bills.
the government reintroduced the latest iteration of the bills.
Sharing details of the changes made in the criminal justice laws, the CrPC had 484 sections, now the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, 2023 will have 531 sections; 177 sections have been changed; 9 new sections and 39 sub-sections have been included; 44 new explanations have been added; timelines have been added in 35 sections; and 14 sections have been repealed.

He said the IPC had 511 sections, and the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita will have 358 sections; 31 new offences have been included in the purview of the new law; the imprisonment period has been increased for 41 offences; penalty has been hiked in 82 offences; compulsory minimum punishment has been introduced in 25 offences; community service has been added as a penalty for 6 offences; and 19 sections have been repealed.

The Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023 has 170 sections as compared to 167 sections in the Indian Evidence Act; 24 sections have been changed; two new sections have been added; and six sections have been repealed, Shah said.
Notably, although the offence of ‘sedition’, which was kept in abeyance by the Supreme Court, has not been retained, a very similar provision has been added to the proposed legislation. Section 152 punishes acts ‘endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.

‘Piloting the Bills, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said these are aimed at indigenising laws originally enacted by the British.
According to the government, three specific provisions that have been symbols of colonial imprint in the IPC – sedition, criminalisation of homosexuality and adultery – have been repealed.
The fine print, however, shows that the offence of sedition, currently rendered inoperable by a Supreme Court order, has had a name change from ‘rajdroh’ to ‘deshdroh’.

IPC, which deals with a majority of criminal offences, was brought by the British in 1860. It was adopted by the Indian government after Independence and has been amended around 77 times,
The three bills include key changes that deal with offences of terrorism and acts against the State, enable the registration of e-FIRs, factor in corruption in election processes, and make electronic evidence a form of primary proof.
Crimes such as mob lynching have been separately defined for the first time, with detailed provisions and enhanced punishment for crimes against women and children.

They also set time limits for certain processes – charge sheets need to be filed within 90 days (a court may grant a maximum of a 90-day extension on an agency’s request) and a magistrate has to take cognisance in 14 days, and criminalise acts such as mob lynching, while also decriminalising medical negligence allegations against doctors.

What Does Opposition Says

Opposing the Bills, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi said, “These three criminal Bills are themselves felonious. Instead of preventing crimes, they are an attempt to give legal cover to the government’s crimes.”

“The reality is that there is no greater punishment for the poor, the Dalits and Muslims in this country than their very lives. If we wanted to reform the laws, then we should have removed those provisions which allow the government and the police to act as they will. The maximum number of undertrials in the country today are Muslims, Dalits and tribals,” he said.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the SAD said the police were getting such powers from these laws that no police force should have.

“These are Bills which everybody should be allowed to discuss… but only the ruling party is here,” she said.
She also raised the issue of Balwant Singh Rajoana who is on the death row for the assassination of Beant Singh.

“Rajoana has been in jail for the past 28 years. For the past 12 years, his mercy petition has been pending. No decision has been taken. The court asks the government to take a decision and the government does not do so. Now the new law says besides his family no one can apply. What will happen to those who have no family,” she said.

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Ruby Thakur

General Studies Lecturer SSBCrackExams, BSc In PCM, Trained Students For State Services Exams. Expertise in Geography ,Polity & Current Affairs. Love Travelling.