India Registers First Cases Under New Legal Code
India has registered its first cases under its new legal code against street vendors. The laws came into effect amid criticism from opposition parties and rights groups. This marked a significant change in India’s legal framework, replacing colonial-era laws.
Sweeping Legal Reforms
The Indian parliament passed sweeping reforms to the legal justice system in December of last year. These changes were described as the most significant in 150 years. Despite facing backlash, the laws passed without debate, and over 140 opposition MPs were suspended from the lower house.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the reforms a « watershed moment. » These laws officially came into force on July 1. The reforms include the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, replacing the Indian Penal Code of 1860, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, replacing the Indian Evidence Act of 1872. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1882.
First Case Filed Against Street Vendor
The first case filed under the new laws was against a street vendor in New Delhi. The vendor allegedly blocked a footbridge, according to media reports. However, the case was quickly quashed following criticism on social media.
Two additional cases were filed against street vendors for public obstruction in Gujarat, Modi’s home state. These cases drew attention to the challenges faced by street vendors under the new legal code.
Criticism and Further Incidents
In Goa, a street vendor was booked for causing « inconvenience to the public and normal flow of traffic. » The vendor allegedly moved his handcart carrying coconuts on the roadside, selling tender coconuts in a public space. On the same day, a tarpaulin vendor was also booked.
As criticism grew, Home Minister Amit Shah provided clarification. He mentioned that the first case, filed at 12:10 AM in Gwalior, was related to a bike theft. « Police, using review provisions, dismissed the case, » Shah said about the case filed in New Delhi.
The brand new legal guidelines embody a number of contentious provisions such because the extension of the restrict for police detention with out cost from 15 days to upto 90 days, classification of terror offences underneath bizarre legal proceedings, formal decriminalization of homosexuality and adultery, and introduction of neighborhood service as a type of punishment.
A earlier regulation criminalizing sodomy has been faraway from the brand new code.
Sedition, for lengthy seen as a colonial legacy in India’s authorized system however rendered inoperable by the Supreme Court docket in 2022, has been changed by an equally controversial offence of treason.
« About 77 years after independence, our legal justice system is changing into fully indigenous and can run on Indian ethos, » Mr Shah mentioned on Monday.
« As a substitute of punishment, there’ll now be justice. »
P Chidambaram, member of the opposition Congress social gathering and former house minister, mentioned the parliament session in December didn’t maintain any « worthwhile debate » earlier than passing the legal guidelines.
He mentioned there was solely marginal enchancment within the new legal guidelines which might anyway have been launched as amendments to present legal guidelines. « The preliminary influence shall be to throw the administration of legal justice into disarray, » he mentioned on X.
Amnesty Worldwide known as on the Indian authorities to repeal the « repressive » new legal legal guidelines.
« The provisions of the amendments to and overhaul of legal legal guidelines in India would have debilitating penalties on the efficient realisation of the rights to freedom of expression, affiliation, peaceable meeting, and truthful trial, » Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty Worldwide India, mentioned.
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