PIL Filed In Supreme Court Challenging 3 Criminal Laws; Claims “More Draconian” Than Colonial Law ()

A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, challenging the newly enacted criminal code replacing the old colonial laws. Under the new bill passed by the parliament, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam will replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act respectively. The three laws were passed in the winter session of the parliament last year and the president gave the assent on December 25.

As the information on the new laws was not published in the Gazette and the laws are not yet framed, they are yet to come into force

The petitioner Vishal Tiwari has emphasized that the new laws lack clarity and have several discrepancies. He also noted that the law has ignored the law commission recommendations.

Tiwari also pointed out that all three criminal laws were passed without adequate parliamentary debate as many members of the parliament were under suspension during the winter session, in which the new criminal laws were passed.

“All three criminal laws were passed and enacted without any parliamentary debate as unfortunately most of the Members were under suspension during the period … the title of these proposed bills does not speak about the statute and its motive but the present names of Acts are ambiguous in nature,” Tiwari said in his petition.

The petitioner also demanded a stay on the implementation of the new criminal laws, noting that the new criminal law is “more draconian” than the colonial era law, and the new laws allows “police torture”, making it difficult to get bail while in police custody. “The new criminal laws are far more draconian and establish a police state in reality and violate every provision of fundamental rights of the people of India. If the British laws were considered colonial and draconian, then the Indian laws stand far more draconian as in the British period you could keep a prison in police custody for a maximum of 15 days. Extending 15 days to 90 days and more, is a shocking provision enabling police torture,” the petitioner added.