What was the govt’s process behind introducing the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill?

An official in the MHA said that a committee was set up under the chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor of National Law University, Delhi to prepare the new law. Shah held around 58 formal and 100 informal review meetings during the process.

This is not the first time reforms to India’s criminal justice system have been suggested. Prior to this, the Law Commission of India had recommended many amendments in its various reports.

“Committees like the Bezbaruah Committee, Viswanathan Committee, Malimath Committee, Madhav Menon Committee had also recommended reforms. So had the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs in its 111th report in 2005, 128th report in 2006, and 146th report in 2010. But no action was taken by anyone,” an MHA official said. It was only in 2019 that work on the reform process was actually started, the official said.

“In 2019, Prime Minister Modi told us that all laws made during British rule should be discussed and reviewed, keeping in mind present times and in the interest of Indian society,” Shah said.

“Today, we have brought three new laws by abolishing the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Code, (1898), 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 made by the British and passed by the British Parliament,” he said.

The Home Minister emphasised that the soul of these three new laws will be to protect citizens’ rights given by the Constitution. “The objective will not be to punish anyone but to give justice and in this process punishment will be given where it is required to create a sense of prevention of crime,” he stressed.

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