New Delhi:The Congress on Sunday picked up holes in the new criminal law reform bills alleging that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had misled Parliament and demanded that the legislations be discussed in public to evolve wider consensus. “The introductory remarks of Home Minister Amit Shah gave away the fact that he is out of depth, ignorant and oblivious to the entire exercise. Other than some point scoring in desperation and credit seeking, a hidden exercise away from public glare or stakeholders’ wisdom, cannot serve the purpose of reforming the criminal law structure in the country,” Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said.
“While the bills have been referred to a Select Committee of Parliament, its provisions must be thrown open for a larger public debate by jurists, lawyers, reformers and other stakeholders to stay away from the trap of bulldozing the entire criminal law structure without debating that is so ingrained in the DNA of the BJP government. We hope better sense prevails,” he said.
The Congress leader was responding to the three bills introduced by the Home Minister on August 11 to reform the colonial-era laws relating to the Criminal Procedure Code, the Indian Penal Code and the Indian Evidence Act. The new bills are the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Samhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Samhita.
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“The Modi government produced the three bills from its black magic hat in a clandestine and opaque manner without holding any prior consultations with the stakeholders to reform the criminal law structure,” said Surjewala. According to the analysis of the three new bills done by the Congress party, the Home Minister lied and misled that the concept of ‘Zero FIR’ (FIRs irrespective of territorial jurisdiction) and e-FIR was being introduced for the first time.
“The Zero FIR has been the brainchild of the previous Congress-led UPA government, which made it effective through an executive order passed on May 10, 2013. The Home Minister lied again on e-FIR. He is effectively launching the facility for a third time. It was done during the UPA government by the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde,” said Surjewala.
On the Home Minister’s claim of a new provision related to a video recording of the statement of the rape victim, the Congress leader said that Shah lied by saying that it has been made compulsory when the new bill only makes it optional. “The Home Minister lied on another point that gang rape has now been made punishable by 20 years in jail or life imprisonment. This has existed in CrPC,” said Surjewala. On the new provision related to the auction of the assets of proclaimed offenders, Congress said that the same existed under Section 83 of the CrPC.
On the new provision of the death penalty for criminal assault on children, the Congress leader said that it is repackaging and the same provision existed under the special act POCSO. On the Home Minister’s claim that the provision of sedition has been repealed to protect freedom of speech, the Congress leader said that under new provisions, the definition of sedition has been made more open and wider thereby allowing it to be misused.
