Criminal laws
The three new criminal laws, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhitathe Bharatiya Citizen Security Code and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act, which will replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act respectively, will come into force from July 1 this year.
The Union Home Ministry issued a gazette notification to this effect on Friday.
Sub Section (2) of Section 106 of the BNS, which concerns ‘causing death of a person by rash and negligent driving of a vehicle’, has been put on hold for now.
The said proviso had invited protests in many parts of the country.
This was because it increases the maximum prison sentence to ten years for those involved in such offences who end up fleeing the scene of the crime, instead of reporting to the police or Magistrate.
The three bills to overhaul India’s criminal justice system had received the assent of the President of India in December 2023.The development had been notified on the website of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The three bills were first introduced in Lok Sabha on August 112023 as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Citizen Security Code and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill before being referred to a parliamentary committee headed by Brij Lal for further examination.
They were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 20 before being passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 21.
