Concerns over new criminal code taking effect in India

Bijay Kumar Minj

Indian activists from various organizations display placards and shout slogans as they protest against the implementation of three new criminal laws in Amritsar, Punjab state on July 1. (Photo: AFP)

Church leaders, rights activists, and legal experts in India have expressed their concerns and apprehensions about a set of criminal codes that took effect on July 1 and replaced British-era statutes.

The revised laws mark a complete overhaul of the South Asian nation's criminal justice system. However, they have sparked controversy as opposition politicians have alleged that the new laws contain several retrograde provisions that are prima facie unconstitutional.

The federal government claimed the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act are being replaced to ensure speedier justice and be in sync with this day and age and the new forms of crime that occur.

The new laws are called the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS or Indian Judicial Code), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS or Indian Civil Defense Code), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA or Indian Evidence Act).

The three set codes were passed in the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament) in December last year.

First of all, the laws were passed when 146 opposition members of the parliament were suspended. There have not been sufficient discussions and deliberations in parliament, Father Cedric Prakash, a human rights activist, told UCA News on July 1.

The Jesuit priest said that the Bar Council of India (BCI) has called the new provisions anti-people and more draconian than the previous laws.

He added that the BCI, a statutory body of lawyers regulating legal education and practice in the country, has already called for a nationwide protest.

Prakash, who is based in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, said the new laws are repressive and would usher in a police state.

In the fitness of things and in deference to the constitution of India, these new criminal laws must be halted immediately and prevented from being implemented, he said.

Muhammad Arif, chairman of the Centre for Harmony and Peace, said the Modi government should have taken all stakeholders, especially opposition parliamentarians and top legal experts, into confidence before removing the old laws.

The Muslim leader said the British-era laws did have all the provisions to address all types of crimes.

Merely changing the titles of the law is not going to help improve law and order or ensure speedier justice, he told UCA News.

Arif, whose organization is based in India's biggest, most populous northern Uttar Pradesh state, said Muslims were concerned as the BJP government's politics and policies have been anti-minority communities.

He further expressed his apprehension if the new code would help the ordinary citizens gain true justice or ensure harmony among all people irrespective of their caste, creed and religion.

Arif said that the world knows India has been witnessing increased religious polarization since Modi's pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

However, federal Home Minister Amit Shah on July 1 told media that the new laws would transform criminal justice into a completely Swadeshi [indigenous] system.

He said the laws were following the spirit of the Indian constitution. Once their implementation is done, they will stand out as the most modern set of laws, he claimed.

Meanwhile, the Bar Council of Delhi opposed the new laws, citing concerns about the impact on justice delivery and their defiance of constitutional principles.

Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said, The BJP is pretending to respect the constitution, but the truth is that the new laws being implemented today were forcibly passed by suspending 146 members of parliament.

The new laws are vaguely worded, leaving huge scope for the government to snatch away citizens' lives and liberty, said Sagarika Ghose, a parliamentarian from the Trinamool Congress party.