BNS not seen as establishing justice-oriented system: WBNUJS prof

Kolkata: The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, one of the three criminal laws that came into force nationwide on July 1, is not being seen as establishing a justice-oriented system, according to a legal expert.

He, however, said the intent in replacing the British-era legislation was to ensure a shift from a punishment-centred system to a justice-oriented one.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BAS) have replaced the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) Assistant Professor Faisal Fasih said, "The government has advertised that there is a transformation from punishment to justice... I beg to disagree." "Extensive power is given to the state or the police. It is not in conformity with the advertisement for making the laws. One may wonder how can penal codes be justice-oriented, these are about penal provisions," Fasih said during a workshop here on Saturday.

Around 90 per cent of the provisions of the IPC, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act have been retained, he claimed.

"The idea was to do away with the colonial legacy as the earlier law was made during the British era. Definitely, change was required but the kind of change in Section 152 of the BNS (on sedition) has made it double draconian," Fasih said.

The intent was to make a shift from a punishment-oriented system to a justice-oriented one, he said.

"There is a contradiction between the intent and the changes introduced in the BNS. Except for the changes in headings or banners, the entire thing is almost the same. The 5-7 per cent substantive changes they have done are not justice-oriented," he added.

The workshop was organised by India’s oldest full-service law firm Fox & Mandal, headquartered in Kolkata, in collaboration with WBNUJS to discuss the changes in the new Codes.

The discussions touched upon the new provisions which have been added such as ‘petty organised crimes’, ‘mob lynching’, ‘terrorism’, a new form of sedition etc. The ingredients of each of these new provisions were analysed to get a better understanding of the codes.