Modi Sarkar very hurriedly brought the new version of Criminal Law before the public with giving it the Hindi Names such as Bhartiya Nyay Sahita, 2023 (BNN) old name Indian Penal Code 1860, Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sahita, 2023(BNSS) old name Criminal Procedure Code,1973 and Bhartiya Saksha Adhiniyam, 2024 (BSA) old name Indian Evidence Act 1872, and all these laws were started implementing since 01.07.2024. Interestingly these laws are reorganized by the office of Ministry of Home Affairs, Union of India and surprisingly the role of Ministry of Law, Union of India is not to be seen in the process, and as how and why the Ministry of Home Affairs, felt it is need to be changed the existing law, and when the law was to be changed what was the process and procedure adopted by the Government all those information was come before the public, and for public interest when these laws were tabled before Parliament to discussion and seeking assent of President of India, for the discussion there were all together 120 Member of Parliament of Opposing Party were not present as they were literally suspended by the Speaker of the House and the very legislation was passed in absence of these public representatives (Member of Parliament)
Any way the very Criminal Law which is passed by the Government is nothing but 80 percent copy of the Old Criminal Law, in fact the very old law which was passed with due care with the help of Common Law Judgements and all these judgments are considered of long period time and after incorporating all these common law judgments in view of legal principals and hence the old law was not imposition of a Colonial Authority, the Judges developed Jurisprudence which made into Statutes and slowly Jurisprudence has been Indianized to suit the Indian Circumstances. Law is not only what is contained in the Enactments, Law is at it is expounded in the Courts, Law is as of its Critique by Scholars, Law is how it is presented by the Lawyers, Law is a interactive process where you have legislature, you have a Judge, you have a Lawyer, you have a Scholar, and you have the Public. Public is not having concerned of how law is set up but the very law is how it stands in the reality. Only changing the section numbers of the old law and put it into with new section number does not mean that law is now really passed to see the welfare of public. It is absolute joke made to the citizens of the state.
In the present new recodified law does not serve the purpose of Rule of Law as the law is missing the principals of rule of law which is based on Transpiracy, Predictability and Setenity and while seeing the implementation of the law every one who is part of legal system is going the face number of hurdles and hence there will be number of hurdles into the process of Administration of Justice.
In the present law Modi Sarkar had given Blanket Power to the police to enhance the power of arrest in remand and now Citizen may be kept in the Lock Up beyond the period of 15 days up to the period of 60 to 90 days. And in meanwhile police may misuse the power and will get the time to Manfacture the Evidence against the arrested innocent person and hence in the process the very purpose of giving justice to the Citizen comes to an end and then very securing of Justice became the Casualty of the new law. And when the Justice became to Casualty of the Law then every citizen of the nation became victim, suffer from the outcome of the new legal process.
In the coming days there will be flood of litigation before the High Courts and Supreme Court over the infringement of the Fundamental rights of the Citizen caused by the police with the implementation of the new so called Modern Law.
For public interest by Ad. Anil Bugde.
