90-99 percent of new laws are merely copied from old ones, Congress leader says
New Delhi: With the implementation of three new criminal laws, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram criticised the government of India on Monday, accusing it of “bulldozing” existing laws and replacing them without sufficient discussion or debate.
The former home minister stated that long-term changes are necessary to align the new laws with the Constitution and modern criminal jurisprudence principles.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam have replaced the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and Indian Evidence Act, respectively. Chidambaram, in a post on X, remarked that 90-99 percent of the new laws are merely copied from the old ones, suggesting that a few amendments to the existing laws would have sufficed.
Chidambaram acknowledged some improvements in the new laws but pointed out several retrograde and potentially unconstitutional provisions. He noted that MPs on the standing committee had detailed their objections in dissent notes, which the government did not address or debate in Parliament.
He further highlighted that legal experts, bar associations, judges, and lawyers have criticised the new laws’ significant deficiencies, which the government has ignored. Chidambaram warned that the immediate impact would be chaos in the criminal justice system, followed by numerous legal challenges, and stressed the need for future changes to ensure the laws conform to the Constitution and modern legal principles.
