President Droupadi Murmu granted approval to three newly proposed criminal justice bills, which received parliamentary clearance last week. These three legislations, namely the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act, are set to replace the long-standing colonial-era statutes—the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
While replying to a debate on the three bills in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the focus was on delivering justice rather than handing down punishment. The three legislations are geared towards a comprehensive transformation of the criminal justice system in the country, providing explicit definitions of various offenses and their corresponding punishments. Notably, these laws offer a distinct delineation of terrorism, eliminate sedition as a criminal offense, and introduce a novel section titled offenses against the state. The bills were first introduced during the Monsoon session of Parliament in August. After the Standing Committee on Home Affairs made several recommendations, the government decided to withdraw the bills and introduced their redrafted versions last week. Shah had said the three bills were drafted after comprehensive consultations and that he had gone through every comma and full stop of the draft legislation before bringing them to the House for approval.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita lists offences such as acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, separatist activities or endangering the sovereignty or unity in the new avatar of the sedition law.