Ready to meet Opposition MPs over new criminal laws, says Amit Shah

Shah rejected criticism that the three new criminal laws were draconian and repressive

On Monday, the first day of the rollout of three new criminal laws, Union Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to members of Opposition parties, who have protested their implementation, to meet him and discuss their grievances.

“I appeal to everyone, whatever their grievances are. If you believe these laws cannot serve the people properly, meet me. Boycotting laws is not the solution. There are many other ways to engage in politics,” he said at a press conference, responding to questions about Opposition leaders’ protests.

Shah dismissed criticism that the three new criminal laws were draconian and repressive. He argued that they are modern, protect victim rights, and establish accountability for police forces. He detailed the improvements over the colonial-era laws that these new ones replaced and the preparations made, including training 2.25 million police personnel on the new laws.

 

State police forces across the country reported lodging the first few cases under these new laws.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed the first information report under the new laws was filed against a street vendor for obstruction while he was earning his daily livelihood under a foot overbridge at New Delhi Railway Station.

In his press conference, Shah clarified that the first case registered under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) was in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, shortly after midnight, relating to a motorcycle theft, not against a street vendor in Delhi. He said that the Delhi case was reviewed and resolved by the police.

BNS, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam came into effect on Monday, replacing the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure, and Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

Shah said that the provision of a maximum 15-day police custody, similar to the previous IPC provisions and police remand periods, has not been extended as claimed in some quarters.

“Previously, if an accused was sent to police remand and admitted to a hospital for 15 days, no interrogation could take place as the remand period would expire. Under BNS, remand can last up to 15 days, but it can be taken in parts within an upper limit of 60 days,” he said.

Responding to protests by Tamil Nadu Members of Parliament (MPs) against the Hindi names of the new laws, Shah assured that these statutes are available in Tamil and all languages listed in the Constitution’s Eighth Schedule. When asked if the government would consider changing the laws’ names, he replied, “Let them meet me.”

In a post in Hindi on X, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said the three laws were passed forcibly after 146 MPs were suspended. “INDIA (bloc) will no longer allow this ‘bulldozer justice’ in the parliamentary system,” Kharge declared.

Congress leader P Chidambaram criticised the laws, saying, “90-99 per cent of the so-called new laws are a cut, copy and paste job. A task that could have been completed with a few amendments to the existing three laws has been turned into a wasteful exercise.”

Shah said these laws were discussed for many hours in both Houses of Parliament and also by a parliamentary committee. MPs, who were members of the standing committee, pored over the provisions and wrote detailed dissent notes to the three Bills, he said.

Chidambaram, who was a member of the House committee, said the government did not rebut or answer any of the criticisms in the dissent notes, and there was no worthwhile debate in Parliament. The initial impact will be to throw the administration of criminal justice into disarray, he said.

A section of lawyers at Calcutta High Court and district courts in West Bengal abstained from judicial work on a protest call by the state’s Bar Council against the three new criminal laws terming it a “black day”. In Tamil Nadu, the state’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s legal wing announced a hunger strike on July 6 to oppose the new criminal laws.