New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three new Bills in the Lok Sabha Friday to overhaul the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.
“We will end these laws today which were brought by the British,” Shah told the House as he introduced in their place the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bills, 2023 respectively.
“The Indian Penal Code was formed in 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code in 1898 and the Indian Evidence Act in 1872,” Shah said, adding: “From 1860 to 2023, the country’s criminal justice system functioned as per the laws made by the British Parliament. Those three laws will be replaced and there will be a major change in the criminal justice system in the country.”
#WATCH | Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks on Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023; The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 and The Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita Bill in Lok Sabha.
He says, "From 1860 to 2023, the country's criminal justice system functioned as per the laws made… pic.twitter.com/TIcoeaXvjG
— ANI (@ANI) August 11, 2023
The Home Minister said the laws that would be repealed were made to “safeguard and strengthen the British”, asserting that the new ones would “transform our criminal justice system”.
“I am about to send these bills to the standing committee. In the prevalent laws, crimes against women and children were given the 302nd position… No other crime can be as heinous as these. The first chapter now will be crime against women and children. The second will be murder, then harm to a human being and so forth… Our laws will make citizens central to it, not colonial rule,” Shah said.
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