Many regressive colonial-era criminal laws retained in new Bills: Think-tank

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, October 22

The Indian Police Foundation (IPF), a think-tank working on police reforms, has said the three new criminal law Bills tabled in Parliament on August 12 have retained “most of the regressive provisions” from the existing colonial era criminal laws.

The IPF was referring to the three proposed criminal law statutes —Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Samhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Bill (BSB) – which were tabled in Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Lok Sabha referred these bills to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for wider consultation.

Submits memorandum to House panel

• Indian Police Foundation, which has several senior retired IPS & IAS officers, has submitted a memorandum to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, urging that there is a need for far more consultation and systemic changes in the Bills
• “We need much greater imagination and innovation to overhaul archaic crime investigation practices and to deal with a deeply flawed criminal justice system ridden with loopholes,” it added

The IPF, which has several senior retired IPS and IAS officers on board, has submitted a memorandum to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, urging that there is a need for far more consultation and systemic changes, adding “a historic opportunity will be lost, if the bills are passed in the present form.”

The IPF said, “It is disappointing that most of the regressive provisions in the colonial criminal laws have been retained in the new Bills.” We need much greater imagination and innovation to overhaul the archaic crime investigation practices and to deal with a deeply flawed criminal justice system ridden with numerous loopholes, it added.

The IPF, headed by former DGP of Assam and Meghalaya, N Ramachandran urged the Parliament “not to rush through the legislations without a nationwide debate.”

The British colonial administration used the Indian police to suppress the natives and the laws gave the police extensive powers of arrest, detention and use of force, with limited resources and accountability against misuse. Time has come to fix this broken system, said the IPF.

The memorandum makes a series of path-breaking recommendations aimed at restoring credibility to the investigation process, improving the prosecution apparatus, and ensuring the protection of citizens’ rights.

Among the series of recommendations, it stated that the Parliament, while enacting the criminal laws, should review and streamline the arrest laws under the existing CrPC. “It is important to introduce legal and administrative safeguards to stop the colonial-era practice of indiscriminate arrests, detention and incarceration, integrating the principles laid down by Supreme Court from time to time,” IPF said.

It has asked that “evil and often deliberate” practice of registering numerous FIRs in multiple police stations across the country, based on electronic, print and social media contents needs to be taken note of by the new law.