New Criminal Bills

On 11^th August 2023, the Government of India introduced three new Bills in the Lok Sabha to repeal and replace the legislation-the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), and Indian Evidence Act (IEA).

1 BHARTIYA NYAYA SANHITA, 2023

The bill has been introduced to repeal and replaces the existing IPC to streamline the provisions related to offences and penalties. The salient features of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, are as follows:

• The Bill introduces community services as one of the punishments for petty offences.
• The offences against women and children, murder, and offences against the state have been given precedence.
• Various offences have been gender-neutral.
• In order to effectively deal with organized crime and terror activities, new offences have been introduced in the Bill with deterrent punishments.
• The Bill introduces new offences on acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, or endangering the sovereignty or unity and integrity of India.
• The Bill introduces fines and punishments for various offences.

2 BHARTIYA NAGARIK SURAKSHA SANHITA, 2023

The Bill has been introduced to repeal and replace the existing CrPC. The salient features of this Bill are as follows:

• The Bill provides for the use of technology and forensic sciences to investigate crimes.
• The Bill provides for furnishing or lodging information, service of summons, etc. through electronic communications.
• The Bill prescribes specific timelines for time-bound investigation, trial, and pronouncement of judgments.
• The Bill adapts a ‘citizen-centric approach’ to supply a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) to the victim and to inform them about the investigation’s progress, including through digital means.
• The Bill provides for the examination of the accused persons through electronic means, including video conferencing.
• The Bill also streamlines the magisterial system.

3 BHARTIYA SAKSHYA BILL, 2023

The Bill has been introduced to repeal and replace the existing IEA. The salient features of this Bill are as follows:

• The Bill provides that ‘evidence’ includes information given electronically, thus, the Bill allows the witnesses, accused, experts, and victims can appear through electronic means.
• The Bill provides for the admissibility of electronic or digital records as evidence and that such electronic and digital records have the same legal effect, validity, and enforceability as paper records.
• The Bill seeks to expand the scope of secondary evidence to include copies made from original documents through mechanic processes, copies made from or compared with the original document, counterparts of documents as against the parties who did not execute them and oral accounts of the contents of a document given by some person who has himself seen it and giving matching hash# value of original record will be admissible as proof of evidence in the form of secondary evidence.
• The Bill further seeks to put limits on the facts which are admissible and their certification as such in the courts.
• The Bill introduces more precise and uniform rules of practice for courts in dealing with facts and circumstances of the case by means of evidence.

These new Bills are as per recommendations of a ‘Criminal Law Reforms Committee’ constituted by the Government of India in March 2022, to make suggestions to revise IPS, CrPC, and IEA.

Here are some important provisions of these Bills…

1 Terrorism defined under the law for the first time. Also, a provision for attaching the property of terrorists.

2 Hit-and Run cases to attract up to a 10-year jail term and fine if the accused driver flees/fails to report the accident to the police or magistrate.

3 Speedy Justice, Police must provide status updates on a case within 90 days. Chargesheets are to be filed within 90 days; the court can extend it for another 90 days. The probe must be finished in 180 days. After trial, judgment is to be given in 30 days and uploaded online within 7 days.

4 Organised Crimes include kidnapping, robbery, vehicle theft, extortion, land grabbing, contract killing, economic offences, cyber crimes among others.

5 Hate Speech– provision introduced, 3-year jail for insulting or trying to insult religion/religious beliefs.

6 Public Mischief– 3-year imprisonment for making, publishing, or circulating statements that are likely to cause fear or alarm to the public, or with intent to incite people to commit offences against others.

7 Offence In Place of Worship– to attract up to 5-year imprisonment.

8 A new provision has been added for snatching.

9 Community Service to be one of the punishments for first-time petty offences

10 Summary Trial for cases entailing less than 3 years of jail. Move aimed at reducing cases in session court by 40%.

11 Commuting Sentences– To stop the political use of punishment waivers by governments, death sentences can only be converted to life imprisonment, and life imprisonment can be pardoned only with 7 years of imprisonment.

12 Definition of Petty Organised Crime– theft of the vehicle or from the vehicle, domestic and business theft, cargo crime, theft of personal property, organised pickpocketing, snatching, theft through shoplifting/ card skimming and ATM thefts, illegal selling of tickets and selling of public exam papers.. by organized criminal groups/gangs. The punishment for these offences will be 1 to 7 years of imprisonment plus a fine.

13 Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) sections will be applicable to Pan India for Kidnapping, robbery, extortion, land grabbing, contract killing, cyber crimes having severe consequences, trafficking in people, drugs, illicit goods or services and weapons, human trafficking racket, economic offences (including money laundering, hawala transactions, counterfeiting of currency, Ponzi schemes) by organized crime syndicates. The punishment for these offences-Minimum a jail term of 5 years extending to a life sentence, with a minimum fine of Rs 5 Lakh.

This is a very welcome step by the Government, as even after independence we were following the laws enacted in the 19^th century by the British Raj.

Waiting for your views on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

14th August 2023