On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that contested the implementation of three new criminal laws intended to supplant the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, presiding over the bench, scrutinized the petitioner’s standing and highlighted that the laws had not yet been enforced, ultimately dismissing the petition.
“What is your locus to challenge the three new criminal laws? They are not even in force. Dismissed,” the Court said.
The trio of laws was initially presented in the Lok Sabha on August 11, 2023, as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (to supplant the IPC), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (to replace the CrPC), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill (to substitute the Indian Evidence Act), before being referred to a parliamentary committee led by Brij Lal for further scrutiny.
They received approval from the Lok Sabha on December 20, 2023, and subsequently passed the Rajya Sabha on the following day.
Following this, on February 24, the Union Home Ministry issued a gazette notification declaring that the new laws would be enforced from July 1 of the same year.
Notably, sub-section (2) of Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which concerns ‘causing death of a person by rash and negligent driving of a vehicle’, has been put on hold for now.
The said provision had invited protests in many parts of the country. It had increased the maximum prison sentence to ten years for those involved in such offences, who end up fleeing the scene of the crime, instead of reporting to the police or Magistrate.
