NEW DELHI- Recently India replaced colonial-era criminal laws with new legislation, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said, would make the country more just, but the opposition said risked throwing the criminal justice system into disarray. In December the new laws were approved by parliament in Modi’s previous term with the government saying that they aim to give justice, not punishment. It says that for more than a century they were required as colonial laws and had been very important for the criminal justice system.
Among the key changes is a replacement of the sedition law frequently used as a tool of suppression, after its enactment under British colonial rule to jail Indian freedom fighters. Under the new laws, which replace the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Indian Evidence Act and the Indian Penal Code. Sedition is replaced with a section on acts seen as risking the integrity, unity, and sovereignty, of India. About 77 years after independence, our criminal justice system is becoming completely indigenous and will run on the Indian ethos, says India’s Home (interior) Minister Amit Shah also he added that instead of punishment, there will now be justice. Shah said, adding that the first case logged under the new law was that of motorcycle theft in the central city of Gwalior, which was registered 10 minutes after midnight.
The laws were debated for three months. It is not reasonable to give political color to this big enhancement which is taking place after centuries. I ask the opposition parties to support this legislation, says Shah. Opposition Congress party lawmaker P. Chidambaram said the earlier parliament session did not have any useful debate before passing the laws. He said that there was only marginal improvement in the new laws, which could have been announced as changes to existing laws. The original impact will be to throw the administration of criminal justice into confusion. According to The Indian Express newspaper an editorial that criminal justice reform should not be which just take place in the books or a one-time solution, and called for police reform and addressing gaps in judicial infrastructure.
