00:00 The Government of India is planning to introduce new criminal laws to replace the Indian Penal
00:06 Code or IPC, Code of Criminal Procedure or CRPC and the Indian Evidence Act.
00:12 The proposed bills called the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita
00:17 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill were presented in the Lok Sabha by Home Minister Amit Shah
00:23 on August 11.
00:27 Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar has referred the three bills to the Standing Committee
00:32 on Home Affairs for examination.
00:35 The Standing Committee has been asked to submit its report within three months.
00:40 It will meet on the 24th of August to discuss the bills.
00:44 The Government will try to get the bills passed in Parliament after discussion in the Winter
00:48 Session itself.
00:52 The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita or BNS Bill which is proposed to replace the British-era Indian
00:57 Penal Code or IPC has 356 provisions compared to 511 sections in the IPC.
01:06 The BNS Bill does away with two contentious provisions on unnatural sex and adultery.
01:12 The law on unnatural sex was diluted and the one on adultery was almost entirely struck
01:17 down in 2018 by the Supreme Court.
01:20 They have now been totally removed.
01:22 On 27 September of 2018, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck off
01:29 section 497 of the IPC which made adultery a criminal offence for men but did not penalise
01:35 women.
01:36 The top court said that acts of adultery will qualify as a crime although they would still
01:41 be grounds for civil action and divorce.
01:43 Under the BNS Bill, there is no provision related to the offence of adultery.
01:49 Unnatural sex was struck down as an offence in 2018 but the provision was left in the
01:53 statute book to deal with unnatural sexual offences against minors.
01:58 But in the new BNS Bill, there is no provision on unnatural sex.
02:04 Attempting to die by suicide was a punishable offence under section 309 of the IPC until
02:10 the passing of the Mental Health Care Act in 2017.
02:13 The Act in effect decriminalised suicide by presuming that suicide is attempted only in
02:18 cases of severe stress.
02:21 Now in the BNS Bill 2023, there is no mention of an offence of an attempt to die by suicide.
02:35 One of the highlights of the BNS Bill 2023 is that it seeks to repeal the offence of
02:40 sedition under the IPC.
02:42 It also provides capital sentences as the maximum punishment for crimes such as mob
02:46 lynching and rape of minors.
02:54 The IPC under section 124A prescribed a sentence of life imprisonment or imprisonment of up
03:00 to three years for sedition.
03:02 The BNS Bill under the chapter on offences against the state talks about acts endangering
03:07 the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
03:10 While the punishment for murder is covered under section 302 of the IPC, it has been
03:15 covered under provision 101 of the BNS Bill.
03:18 The punishment for murder, i.e. life term or death sentence, remains unchanged.
03:25 The new Bill proposes to make mob lynching a separate offence.
03:29 The BNS Bill stipulates, "When a group of five or more persons acting in concert commits
03:35 murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief
03:41 or any other ground, each member of such group shall be punished with death or with imprisonment
03:47 for life or imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years."
03:52 For the first time, the word "terrorism" has been defined under the BNS Bill.
03:57 It was not defined in the British-era IPC.
03:59 The BNS Bill says, "A person is said to have committed a terrorist act if he commits any
04:05 act in India or any foreign country with the intention to threaten the unity, integrity
04:09 and security of India, to intimidate the general public or a segment thereof, or to disturb
04:15 public order by doing an act."
04:19 For the first time in India, community service has been introduced as a punishment.
04:23 As per the IPC, defamation carries a punishment of simple imprisonment of up to two years
04:29 or a fine or both.
04:31 In the BNS Bill, the punishment for defamation is the same as IPC except for the addition
04:36 of community service instead of a fine.
04:39 In the chapter on sexual offences against women and children, the BNS Bill says, "Whoever
04:44 by deceitful means or making by a promise to marry a woman without any intention of
04:48 fulfilling the same and has sexual intercourse with her shall be punished with imprisonment
04:53 of up to ten years."
04:55 It defines deceitful means as including the false promise of employment or promotion,
05:00 inducement or marrying after suppressing identity.
05:04 The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill repeals five existing provisions of the Evidence Act.
05:10 It proposes changes to 23 provisions and introduces one new provision.
05:15 It contains 170 sections in all.
05:17 Significantly, it allows witnesses, accused, experts and victims to appear by electronic
05:23 means.
05:24 It also gives electronic evidence the same legal value as documents.
05:29 The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita or BNSS repeals nine provisions of the CRPC,
05:36 proposes changes to 107 provisions and introduces nine new provisions.
05:41 The most significant change is that it allows the trial to proceed even if the accused is
05:46 not present.
05:47 This will help in trying criminals like Daud Ibrahim, Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi who are
05:53 absconding.
05:55 Another significant change proposed by the BNSS is the duration of police custody.
06:00 It can now be spread over 60 days or even 90 days, depending on the charge.
06:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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