Withhold new criminal laws: Stalin

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin demanded the withholding of the new three criminal laws, enacted by Union Government to replace the existing Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act 1872 with effect from July 1, since no consultation had been held with the State governments.

Since the enactments fell within List III, which was the concurrent list of the Constitution, extensive consultations ought to have been done with the State Governments, Stalin said in his letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, adding that the States were not given adequate time to express their views and the new laws were passed by the Parliament without the participation of the opposition parties.

He also pointed out that all the three Acts - Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023; Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023; Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023 – had been named in Sanskrit, which was in clear violation of Article 348 of the Constitution that mandates all Acts passed by the Parliament to be in English.

Stating that there were some fundamental errors in the new enactments, he said that for instance Section 103 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) had two subsections for two distinct classes of murder but had the same punishment. Similarly there were some more provisions in BNSS and BNS which were ambiguous or self-contradictory, he said.

The implementation of these new laws would require discussions with academic institutions and the revision of syllabus for Law College students which require sufficient time, he said.

The capacity building and other technological requirements for the stakeholder departments like the Judiciary, Police, Prisons, Prosecution and Forensic would need adequate resources and time and it was also imperative to frame new rules and revise the existing forms and operating procedures in consultation with stakeholder departments that could not be done in haste before July 1, the Chief Minister said.

Drawing the Union Minister’s attention to the various objections and issues faced by the State in the implementation of the three new Criminal Laws, Stalin said the replacement of IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act had been done in haste without adequate deliberations and consultations.

In view of the above hurdles and setbacks in the implementation of the new laws, the Union Government should review the enactments after taking into consideration the views of all the States and other key stakeholders and withhold the aforesaid enactments that had already been notified, Stalin said.