The following laws should be reconsidered and repealed to ensure justice, equality, liberty for all citizens.
Narendra Modi’s BJP ran the government in India for 10 years. That government has been rejected. So we have a new starting point going forward. As Parliament is reconstituted after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, let’s be straight up. The following laws should be reconsidered and repealed to ensure justice, equality, liberty for all citizens.
Citizenship Amendment Act: As the Citizenship Amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2019, the country protested over concerns that coupled with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), it could lead to the disenfranchisement of many Indian citizens. Home Minister Amit Shah’s insistence that the NRC would be implemented nationwide, despite the disastrous pilot project in Assam — where around 6 per cent of residents were left out of the final NRC list — exacerbated these concerns. If this exclusion rate is extrapolated nationally, crores of Indians could potentially become stateless.
Criminal Law Bills: The recent arbitrarily-enacted Criminal Law Bills, require urgent reconsideration and repeal since they encompass the provisions on marital rape and sedition, and pose the risk of “police raj” by criminalising “resisting, refusing, ignoring or disregarding to conform to any direction given by a police officer”. This is a slippery slope to authoritarianism and undermines fundamental freedoms. The devil is in the details. These laws, with their significant discrepancies and inherent injustices, need thorough scrutiny and stakeholder consultations. (This columnist was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs where constructive suggestions and voices of dissent from members of the Opposition were ignored in the final recommendations.)
Marital Rape Exception: Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita deals with the offence of rape but provides an exception for marital rape, stating that “sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape”. This exception stems from archaic English laws that did not recognise men and women as equals. It undermines the fundamental principle that rape is a violation of personal autonomy and bodily integrity, regardless of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. It’s high time we bid farewell to this outdated notion.
Sedition: The use of Section 124A of the IPC (the old sedition law) had been kept in abeyance following a Supreme Court order in May 2022. The court had given the government time to reconsider the law. Subsequently, the Home Minister claimed that sedition has been removed from the list of offences in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. This new version avoids the term “sedition” but introduces the vaguely-defined offence of “endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India”. This broad definition, contrary to the 22nd Law Commission’s recommendation for clarity, leaves room for misuse and threatens to stifle dissent and protest.
The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners Act, 2023: The Act changes the composition of the selection committee to appoint Election Commissioners. The Supreme Court’s directive that the Chief Justice should be a part of the Committee was disregarded. The Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha), and a nominated Union cabinet minister now make the selection, giving the Union government total control over the selection.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023: The Act empowered the Union government to exclusively auction mining leases and composite exploration licences for certain critical high-value minerals such as cadmium, selenium, nickel, cobalt, tin, etc. It also dispensed with the forest clearances required for mine reconnaissance and prospecting operations. It is critical to point out that the Act allows sub-surface excavation as part of reconnaissance, which had been prohibited under the 1957 Act. The environmental consequences of such invasive operations can be severe and irreversible, undermining sustainable development goals and disregarding previously existing environmental protections.
The Transgender Persons Act, 2019: The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, only recognises “sexual abuse” with a maximum punishment of two years as opposed to life imprisonment for rape of women. This punishment is insufficient and discriminatory. The law on rape should be inclusive and extend its protection to transgender women, ensuring they receive the same legal safeguards and justice as cisgender women.
The Aircraft Act, 1934: The law defines an aircraft as “any machine which can derive support in the atmosphere from reactions of the air”. It includes “balloons, whether fixed or free, airships, kites, gliders and flying machines”. So, yes, your childhood kite is basically an aircraft, and your backyard might just be an aerodrome!
The writer is MP and leader, All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party (Rajya Sabha). Research credit: Chahat Mangtani
