New Delhi: The Union government on Tuesday, December 12, withdrew and re-introduced the three new criminal law Bills to make changes that were recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs.Union home minister Amit Shah said that the Bills were re-introduced as the Standing Committee had made several suggestions and instead of moving different official amendments, new Bills have been introduced.The discussion on the three new Bills will take place on Thursday so that opposition members get 48 hours to study the changes.“These are mostly grammatical errors and about four to five changes. But we are ready for a long discussion and if members of the opposition suggest changes that need to be incorporated they can be done through amendments,” he said.Voting on the Bills and the government’s reply is expected to take place on Friday.The three Bills are the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam Bill and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, meant to replace the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act and Code of Criminal Procedure, respectively.According to the Indian Express, the parliamentary panel, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Lal, had said that the government should bring back the term “unsound mind” instead of “mental illness”, since the latter is “too wide in its import”.“The committee has accordingly recommended that the word ‘mental illness’ in this Sanhita may be changed to ‘unsound mind’ wherever it occurs, as the present one can create problems during the trial stage, as an accused person can simply show that he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the time of the commission of a crime and cannot be prosecuted even if he has committed the crime without intoxication,” the panel’s report said, according to the newspaper.The panel had stated that the new Bill should still contain a section criminalising adultery – an act which had been decriminalised in 2018 by the Supreme Court. However, according to The Indian Express, the government has not accepted this recommendation.Experts have been concerned about the new Bills and the changes they will bring into India’s justice system. Writing for The Wire, advocate and legal academic G. Mohan Gopal had said, “Twelve changes to criminal law in the three Bills introduced in parliament in August, 2023 will create a quantum leap in the power of the government, if and when it so wishes, to silence dissent and opposition and shut down public discourse, choking all channels that communicate conflicting news or views to the people.”Note: This article was originally published at 9:56 am on December 12, 2023 and republished at 5:05 pm on the same day, after the Bills were re-introduced.
