New criminal laws: Lok Sabha panel meet today

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee scrutinising three bills to replace the existing criminal laws will meet on Monday to adopt draft reports, days after some Opposition members sought an extension for the panel to go through the measures in greater detail.

On October 27, the standing committee on home could not adopt the three draft reports as some Opposition members pressed for more time to study the draft report. The committee will now meet on November 6, according to a notice sent to members for adopting the three drafts.

Opposition members had urged panel chairperson Brij Lal to seek three months extension of its tenure and “stop bulldozing these bills for short-term electoral gains”.

According to sources, some Opposition members are of the opinion that, in order to make robust legislation that serves the marginalised, the committee should not adopt a final report in the next few days or in November. “We will be mocking the process of legislative scrutiny if we do so,” an Opposition MP said in a communication.

The BJP sources said that the committee has engaged in an extensive consultation process and will meet its deadline of three months. “The panel may adopt the draft reports despite protests by some of its members from the Opposition parties,” sources said.

Seeking a complete overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during the Monsoon Session, had introduced three bills to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act 1872 with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, respectively, in the Lok Sabha.

According to sources, the committee is likely to recommend a draft of amendments to the three bills but will be sticking to their Hindi names, a clause that is fiercely contested by the Opposition members, including from the DMK. They have demanded English names for the proposed laws as well.