NEW DELHI: West Bengal CM and TMC Supremo on Friday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing her concerns regarding the
implementation
of three newly enacted
criminal laws
and sought a delay in the implementation of the laws namely: The
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita
(BNA) 2023, The Bharatiya Sakhsya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023, and The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023.
Banerjee pointed out that these critical bills were passed unilaterally by the outgoing government on December 20th last year, without any proper debate. She highlighted the fact that nearly 100 members of the Lok Sabha were suspended, and a total of 146 MPs from both Houses were expelled from the Parliament on that day. She described the passage of the bills as an authoritarian act that took place during a dark hour for democracy and called for a review of the matter.
“I urge your esteemed office now to consider at least a deferment of the implementation date. Reasons are two-fold: ethical, and practical. Ethically, I believe that it would be in the fitness of things to place these significant legislative changes before the newly elected Parliament for fresh deliberation and scrutiny,” the West Bengal CM wrote in her letter.
The laws – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act – got the Parliament’s approval on December 21, 2023 during the winter session. President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent on December 25.
The TMC supremo said that she had previously written two letters to the Union home minister, emphasising the need for extreme caution and due diligence before making any changes to the existing structure of the country’s penal-criminal jurisprudence. She had also suggested that the newly elected members of the Lok Sabha should deliberate upon these crucial legislations and reach a consensus.
“The request for postponement stems from a pragmatic assessment of the challenges and preparatory work required for a smooth transition, particularly concerning the training of law enforcement personnel and judicial officers,” the letter said.
On June 18, Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin had also asked the Union government to withhold three newly enacted criminal laws. The Tamil Nadu chief minister expressed his concerns that these new laws, which come under the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution, were passed “in haste without adequate deliberations and consultations.”
“These enactments are falling within List III – concurrent list — of the Constitution of India and hence extensive consultation ought to have been done with state govts. The states were not given adequate time to express their views and the new laws were passed by the parliament without the participation of the opposition parties,” Stalin said in the letter.
The newly enacted laws will replace the British-era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
