Madras High Court notice to Centre on DMK’s petition against new criminal laws

Chennai, July 19

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The Madras High Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre over a plea by the DMK to declare as ultra vires and unconstitutional, the three new criminal laws brought in by the Union government.

The three laws — Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — have come into effect from July 1. They have replaced the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Evidence Act.

A Division Bench comprising Justices SS Sundar and N Senthil Kumar before whom the petition filed by DMK Organising Secretary RS Bharathi came up for hearing, issued notice to the Centre and gave it four-week time to respond.

According to the petitioner, the government introduced the three Bills and got them passed by the Parliament without any meaningful discussion.

In the absence of any substantive changes, mere shuffling of sections was unnecessary and will cause a lot of inconvenience and confusion regarding the interpretation of the provisions, he added.

He said shuffling of sections will make it very difficult for the judges, advocates, the law enforcing authorities and the general public to correlate the new provisions with the old ones to search for precedents.