The Lok Sabha passed the three criminal law bills Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita to replace the Indian Penal Code, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita to replace the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Sanhita to replace the Indian Evidence Act. The move came on December 20, just a day after 49 MPs from both houses of the Parliament were suspended, bringing the tally of suspended MPs to 141. The three bills were passed smoothly, almost unopposed. The bills, introduced in August by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to revamp the criminal justice system, were withdrawn on December 11 and later reintroduced with revisions.
“I am proud to have piloted these bills that will replace these colonial-era laws. These are in line with our constitutional principles. For the first time, terrorism has been defined. So that no one can use loopholes,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while discussing the bills in the Lok Sabha.
He also went on to add that under the new criminal bills, mob lynching has been made punishable with death. “Mob lynching has often been used to abuse us, but when you were in power, you forgot about it,” he said, referring to the previous UPA government. One of the other amendments introduced by the bills pertains to giving exemptions to doctors in certain cases of death due to medical negligence.
There have been many concerns raised regarding the three bills with regard to them potentially leading to excessive use of police force and posing a threat to human rights. Although the Home Minister said that with these bills, “all signs of the shackles of our colonial past and of our slavery “ will be eradicated and that the contentious British-era sedition law has been repealed, the definition of sedition has been changed from 'Rajdroh' (against the government) to 'Deshdroh' (against the nation).
The Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, in its current form, has 358 sections, the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita has 531 sections, and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Sanhita has 170 sections. After the bills were first introduced in the Parliament on August 11, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs gave many recommendations, including the retention of Section 377 to criminalise sexual offences against men and transgender individuals.