India Parliament lower house passes post-colonial criminal law reform bills while opposition members suspended News
Subhashish Panigrahi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
India Parliament lower house passes post-colonial criminal law reform bills while opposition members suspended

The lower house of India’s Parliament passed three criminal law amendment bills on Wednesday that are set to replace the existing criminal laws in the country, still largely a legacy from the British colonial era that ended in 1947. The Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita,2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023 will replace the Indian Penal Code-1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure Act-1898, and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, respectively. The revised iterations of the bill were introduced last week after the older versions were withdrawn to make minor changes.

The revised bills passed through the Lok Sabha with a voice vote. The vote occurred despite the fact that 95 opposition members of the Parliament were suspended from the Lok Sabha amidst protests over the recent security breach. During the voice vote, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla proposed a question of the bills’ passage to the house and asked the house to put forward its opinion in either a yes or no vote. Because a number of opposition members remain suspended, the three bills cleared the Lok Sabha nearly unopposed. Apart from a few opposition members, dissenting opinions were noticeably lacking.

Speaking for the bills, Home Minister Amit Shah said, “The bills are based on three principles—a person’s freedom, human rights and impartiality.” He added that the three new bills “reflect the spirit of the original Indian Code of Justice and the new bills seek to establish a justice system based on Indian thinking. The three proposed criminal laws will free people from colonial mindset and its symbols.” Some human rights activists in the country have expressed concern over what they refer to as the “draconian” nature of the three new bills.

The three bills will now pass to the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of Parliament, for approval. Another two opposition MPs from the Lok Sabha were also suspended on Wednesday, bringing the total suspended in the Lok Sabha to 97.

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