NEW DELHI: In a historic move to revamp India’s criminal justice system, the Modi Government has decided to do away with the colonial- era Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) of 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act.
Introducing three new bills in the Lok Sabha on the last day of the Monsoon Session, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said this would fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to abandon all vestiges of slavery.
On August 15 last year, PM Modi had announced five pledges (“panch pran”), which included a call for “100 per cent freedom from slavery”.
The proposed laws— Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023; and Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023— have been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for greater scrutiny before they are brought on the statute book.
Wide consultations: In his introductory remarks, Shah said they had been drafted after extensive consultation with various stakeholders, including Supreme Court and High Court Judges, Chief Ministers and Governors, and drew inspiration from recommendations of various expert committees and the Law Commission.
The Nyaya Sanhita repeals nearly a dozen provisions of the IPC (including sedition), drastically modifies 175 of them and adds eight new sections.The Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita aims to digitise the entire process of investigation, starting with the registration of an FIR and extending to the upkeep of the case diary and submission of a charge sheet.
The new evidence law facilitates comprehensive trial, including cross-examination and appeals, through videoconferencing. It makes it mandatory to employ videography when recording statements from victims of sexual crimes. In total, 313 changes have been proposed in the three criminal laws. “The laws that are being replaced were essentially aimed at safeguarding the continuation of the British administration. Their objective was to punish, not deliver justice,” Shah said.
“In this Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal, new laws should be made by abolishing the laws which have been going on from the time of slavery,” PM Modi had said earlier on many occasions. In the last nine years, the Modi government has also repealed over 1,500 archaic laws, most of which were remnants of the British- era.
