One of India’s most highly regarded senior advocates Indira Jaising has said that if the three new criminal laws come into force on July 1, which is what the government intends, we will have “a legal and judicial mess” adding specifically that “life and liberty could be in danger”.
This is why the former Additional Solicitor General has appealed to the Union law minister as well as to all the leading opposition politicians in the country to hold the three criminal laws in abeyance until they are further discussed and looked at closely once again.
Jaising says that you could have two different justice systems running concurrently and in parallel, you could have endless disputes over which procedural law applies (old or new) and the pendency of cases could increase by 30% or even 40%.
The offences she discusses are Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which she says is even more draconian than Section 124A of the IPC which defines sedition, second, the fact that many UAPA offences are repeated as offences under the new criminal law and, therefore, the “process” will be additionally “punishing” and, third, that the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita mandates a preliminary inquiry in every cognizable offence which is punishable for three years or more but less than seven and, therefore, FIRs won’t be automatically lodged.
Jaising says there will be multiple petitions challenging the new criminal laws in the Supreme Court as well as the major high courts in the country.
