New criminal laws: BRS asks Modi to defer laws before midnight

BRS leader and former MP B Vinod kumar said on Sunday that the whole country was hopeful that the high level intervention would come by midnight to defer them before the appointed date of July 1, 2024.

Hyderabad: Making an earnest appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defer the implementation of three new criminal laws in view of the controversies surrounding them and serious concerns being voiced all over the country on the scope of their potential misuse, BRS leader and former MP B Vinod kumar said on Sunday that the whole country was hopeful that the high level intervention would come by midnight to defer them before the appointed date of July 1, 2024.

Addressing a news conference along with senior advocates and party leaders at Telangana Bhavan, he said the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act, which would come into effect immediately, were intended to overhaul the criminal justice system in India. Legal experts and activists in the country were worried that certain provisions could be misused by authorities, leading to violation of rights and infringement of liberties, particularly in terms of surveillance and detention.

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A representation was already sent to the Prime Minister, seeking further review of the key aspects of the new laws and deferring their implementation in the interest of the people in the country. Over 3000 leading personalities from all walks of life, including legal luminaries, retired judges of the Supreme Court, and retired civil servants, were signatories to it. Certain aspects of the new laws, such as the extension of the police detention period without charge from 15 days to up to 90 days, have made them controversial. These controversies highlight the need for careful monitoring and corrections before the new codes are put into effect, Vinod Kumar said.

Even as the Supreme Court had suggested measures for addressing non-serious cases adopting mutually agreeable approaches, the new laws would end up giving the station house officer both the powers of police and the judiciary with the authority to grant station bail, putting the offenders and the aggrieved at the receiving end, he said, pointing out that the existing Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code came into existence overcoming all implementation challenges, and if any need was felt for overhauling them, it should be done for the better with the concurrence of all the stakeholders across the country.

Questioning the need for naming the new laws in Hindi instead of English, he said the needs of the Southern States such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Odisha should also be taken into consideration. The names given now reflect the obsession of the ruling party with the desire to make a mark of its own on the legal system. Highlighting the need for intervention by the Supreme Court, he said the new laws would be challenged in court. He said he would take the lead in moving the Supreme Court. The new laws would go in the way of the farm laws made by the Modi government, which had to be kept in abeyance in the face of country-wide protests by farmers and the death of over 800 farmers, he recalled.