Law experts enlighten media on three new criminal law Bills

Kolkata: At a time when the Supreme Court is being flooded with PILs to stall the implementation of the three new bills relating to criminal justice system, faculty members of the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata, on Friday, sought to highlight the important facets of it to the media.

Several concerns plague these three new Bills which have sought to carry out an overhaul of India’s criminal justice system.

Some of the concerns are as to how the courts would handle cases which are ongoing and the ones that will come up after July 1. Many noted jurists are of the opinion that the courts may have to deal with two sets of law, one belonging to the older provisions and the other, the new ones that will be implemented from Monday.

In a bid to sensitise the media persons about the new set of laws replacing the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC) and the Indian Evidence Act, from July 1, Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Friday organised a workshop. Several speakers, including the NUJS faculty members, spoke about the advantages while punching loopholes in the new set of laws.

Faisal Fasih, assistant professor of NUJS, mentioned that the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) which will be replacing the IPC, will bring about several changes. He spoke about Section 377 which dealt with the punishment for sexual relations within the same gender and was struck off earlier. In the BNS too, this provision stands revoked. The professor raised concerns that in the context of rape, which is still gender specific, there is no provision to deal with that offence relating to same-sex couples.

On the other hand, in the new laws, a time frame has been set for the police to complete the probe and for the courts to complete proceedings. Also, for the first time, mob lynching has been defined in the BNS with a provision of seven-year imprisonment. If the victim gets permanently disabled then the maximum sentence will be 10 years.In the case of any criminal who is evading arrest at the time of trial, provisions have been added to seize their properties both within and outside of the country.

Apart from these, forensic examination has been made mandatory for offences where the maximum period of imprisonment is more than seven years. This step was taken to promote scientific methods during the investigation and increase the conviction rates.