Know What’s New In India’s Criminal Laws Coming Into Effect From July 1

New Delhi: The Central government on Saturday notified that the three new criminal laws — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Saksha Adhiniyam (BSA) — will come into effect from July 1.

The laws, passed during the Winter session of Parliament, got President Draupadi Murmu’s assent on December 25.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (45 of 2023), the central government hereby appoints the 1st day of July 2024 as the date on which the provisions of the said Sanhita, except the provision of sub-section (2) of section 106, shall come into force,” the notification stated.

Introduced in Parliament during its Monsoon session in August last year, the new laws will replace colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), Criminal Code Procedure (CrPC) and Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

What’s New

While IPC had 511 sections; BNS has 358. Similarly, CrPC had 484 sections, while BNSS has 531; and Evidence Act had 166 sections, while BSA has 170.

The new law defines the word ‘terrorism’, which was not there before. Sedition is not a crime in the new law, which has a fresh section titled “offences against the state.”

It lists offences such as acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, separatist activities or endangering the sovereignty or unity.

The Nyaya Sanhita includes 20 new offences like organised crime, terrorist acts, mob lynching, hit-and-run, sexual exploitation of a woman by deceitful means, snatching, abetment outside India, acts endangering the sovereignty, integrity, and unity of India, and publication of false or fake news.

The new law widens the ambit of what constitutes terrorism and has a provision for death penalty for mob lynching and rape of minors. Adultery, homosexual sex, and suicide attempts will no longer be considered crimes under the new laws.

The word ‘Rajdroh’ as in the British era law has been replaced with ‘Deshdroh’ (traitor).