Heavens will not fall if implementation of new criminal laws is delayed, PUCL writes to Law Minister

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 29

People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has urged the Government to postpone the implementation of the recently enacted three criminal laws, scheduled to take effect from July 1, saying a critical analysis of these laws reflecting the experiences and views of practitioners has not taken place.

In an open letter to Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, PUCl said that ‘heavens will not fall' if implementation was delayed and that public discussions could still be organized in the new parliament session with freshly elected MPs sworn in.

It requested that there should be a national discussion on the nature, need, scope and content of the three new criminal laws.

“We urge that the request for postponement of implementation and initiating national level public discussion culminating in discussion in Parliament should not be seen through partisan lens or from a position of adversarial politics. What is at stake is not just the very future of criminal law administration in India; a much greater concern is the health of constitutional democracy,” PUCL said.

Passed by Parliament in December 2023 during the Winter Session, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam will replace the Indian Penal Code 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act 1872 respectively. President Droupadi Murmu’ had given her assent on December 25, 2023.

It said a critical analysis of these laws reflecting the experiences and views of criminal lawyers, law enforcement agencies, judicial officers and ordinary citizens has yet to take place.

“We are aware that in a conference on 'India's Progressive Path in the Administration of Criminal Justice System' in Kolkata on 16th June, 2024, you had stated that the new laws – the BNS, BNSS and BSA – had been brought about after extensive discussion, including with the judiciary, and that therefore there was no scope for postponement of the implementation of these laws meant to replace the colonial era, IPC, CrPC and Indian Evidence Act… Suffice it to say that in the backdrop of suspension of many MPs of the opposition parties and with very limited time for discussion, the type of discussions that these laws ought to have been subjected to, did not happen in December, 2023,” the PUCL wrote to the Law Minister.

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