New Criminal Laws

• Bharatiya Nyaya  Sanhita, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha  Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam to completely overhaul the country’s criminal laws. 

• These  replaced  the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973 (originally enacted in 1898) and the Indian Evidence Act 1972 respectively.

• Major Changes:

• The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 makes mob lynching and hate crime a separate offence for the first time and prescribes a punishment that extends from life imprisonment to death. 

•  A victim can go to any police station and lodge a zero FIR and it will have to be compulsorily transferred to the police station concerned within 24 hours.

•  Earlier, one could be declared a fugitive only in 19 crimes, now a provision has been made to declare a fugitive in 120 crimes. 

•  A provision for trial in absentia has been introduced; If the people hiding in other countries don’t appear the Court within 90 days then in their absence a trial will go on.

• Sedition has been repealed in the new law. Rajdroha (sedition or offence  against the government) has been replaced with deshdroha (offence against the nation or country). 

Indian Penal Code( IPC) 1860

• IPC was the official code of India covering all substantive aspects of criminal laws, which came into force during early British Raj in 1860. 

• The code was drafted on the recommendations of the first Law Commission of India established in 1834 under the Charter Act of 1833 under Lord Macaulay.