New Delhi, July 1 (EFE).- Three new criminal laws came into effect in India on Monday, which the government says are aimed at speeding up the judicial process and freeing the country from colonial-era legislation.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, ed by both houses of Parliament in December, replaced the over 160-year-old Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Two other laws, the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, replaced the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, respectively.
The government has described these laws as a new era for the country’s criminal justice system.
In January, Home Minister Amit Shah said the new laws aim to “deliver timely justice” and “curb crimes by increasing the conviction rate.”
However, leaders from opposition parties have criticized the new laws, claiming they are “a cut, copy, and paste” of the colonial laws.
“The three criminal laws to replace the IPC, CrPC, and Indian Evidence Act come into force today; 90–99 percent of the so-called new laws are a cut, copy, and paste job,” a leader from the main opposition, the Indian National Congress (INC) party, P. Chidambaram, said on social media platform X.
“A task that could have been completed with a few amendments to the existing three laws has been turned into a wasteful exercise,” he added.
While acknowledging that there were a few improvements in the new laws, Chidambaram pointed out that they also contained several retrograde provisions.
“Some changes are, prima facie, unconstitutional. (…) The government did not rebut or answer any of the criticisms in the dissent notes. There was no worthwhile debate in Parliament,” he said.
The laws were implemented by force after suspending 146 lawmakers during the parliamentary session in December, the president of INC, Mallikarjun Kharge, said on X.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently re-elected for a third consecutive term, has sought to shed India’s colonial ties by building a new Parliament and renaming New Delhi’s iconic boulevard from Rajpath to Kartavya Path. EFE
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