Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Colin Gonslaves, cited the apex court’s directive that an FIR should be filed immediately on a complaint but the new law stipulates the filing of the FIR only after a preliminary inquiry.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Opposition leaders and legal experts have raised concerns over the new criminal law bills introduced by the Narendra Modi government calling them “draconian” and a “copy-paste”.
The three bills will replace the existing criminal laws — Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860; the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 — with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS-II to replace the IPC), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS-II to replace the CrPC), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill (BSB-II to replace the Indian Evidence Act).
Criticising the three bills, senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that the government claims that the new legislation would dump the colonial laws. “But 99 percent of the act has been copy-pasted,” he said.
Taking to X platform (formerly Twitter), Chidambaram said: “Has the government really dumped the British “colonial” criminal laws? Consider the fact that 90-95% of IPC, 95% of CrPC and 99% of Evidence Act have been cut, copied and pasted in the three Bills: can any one deny or debate that fact? In fact, the government has immortalised Macaulay and Fitz Stephen who drafted the original IPC and Evidence Act. The opportunity to replace and redraft the laws has been wasted”.
He also pointed out that the three instances being cited as an example of repealing the colonial laws have already been struck down by the Supreme Court.
“The Hon’ble Home Minister said that three instances of the colonist imprint have been repealed. The facts are otherwise: 1) Sedition was read down severely and registration of FIRs for sedition was prohibited by the Supreme Court 2) Sec. 377 of the IPC relating to homosexuality was decriminalised by the Supreme Court 3) The section on adultery was struck down by the Supreme Court,” posted Chidamabaram.
He further said: “We can thank the Hon’ble Home Minister for rejecting the recommendations of the Standing Committee (dominated by BJP MPs) for including these “offences” in the new bills. The passing of the three bills with the Opposition benches practically empty (thanks to the 143 suspensions) is like winning a cricket match where the opposite team is not allowed to bat”.
Earlier, another Congress leader and former Union Minister Manish Tewari said the three bills will turn the country into a “totalitarian police state”.
“These three Criminal Bills lay the foundations of transforming India into a totalitarian Police State,” Tewari said in his post on X.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Colin Gonslaves, pointed out that these laws proposed by the current government are ten times more draconian than the British laws.
The proposal of increasing the duration of police custody will enable police torture, he said. “The statue provision of UAPA has been incorporated into the new criminal law but two important safety provisions have been removed. The provision of taking sanction from the government and the oversight by the independent authority into the charges (which is in the UAPA) has been removed from the new criminal law,” he was quoted by India Today as saying.
Gonsalves cited the Supreme Court directive that an FIR should be filed immediately on a complaint but the new law stipulates the filing of the FIR only after a preliminary inquiry. The guidelines to stop custodial torture has been deleted, he said.
“When you compare the colonial (ruler) with the present government, the present government is ten times more draconian,” said Gonslaves.
