‘Changes mostly in name, but some increase police powers’

Bengaluru: “You can’t call a person 420 anymore,” senior advocate and former advocate-general BV Acharya once said in a lighter vein during a talk on Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam.
Acharya was referring to the extent to which the old sections of Indian Penal Code were part and parcel of life.Incidentally, Section 318 of BNS now replaces IPC’s 420 (cheating).
Speaking to TOI, Acharya, a veteran legal luminary, was of the view that if the central govt wanted some changes, it should have introduced amendments instead of changing the very nomenclature. Going by the words used in the new enactments, it is a case of imposition of Hindi, he added.
A large number of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court interpreting and explaining the relevant provisions of the code and making several recommendations to improve the system have been totally ignored while enacting the Sanhitas, he said. For instance, under Section 227(b) of BNS, which corresponds to Section 204 of IPC, the magistrate is empowered to issue a warrant at the first instance itself, though the Supreme Court in a series of rulings had held that in such cases, summons alone should be issued at the first instance. Retaining the provision that enables the magistrate to issue warrant is a retrograde step, Acharya explained.
Primacy to police
Senior advocate Hashmath Pasha was of the view that the new law, in effect, gives primacy to police, public servants and the accused, and this may lead to corruption. Not even a single word in the old laws has been deleted, he said, adding that the whole exercise has been done to claim that they’ve done away with the colonial laws. With special enactments operating parallelly, police might find it difficult to register cases, he added.
According to senior advocate MS Shyamsundar, the new laws are like old wine in a new bottle. “They’ve just changed names and rearranged things. There can’t be anything novel because they are all principle-based legislation and as such, no new principles can be invented or applied to make them novel, unless India migrates to a new philosophy or theory of law and justice. The old laws, though made by earlier rulers, were mostly made keeping in mind the Indian conditions and are time-tested.”
Full report: toi.in