The first case under India’s new criminal laws was registered for the theft of a motorcycle in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior district on Monday, NDTV reported.
The three new laws – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 – came into effect on Monday.
They have replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Provisions under the old laws will continue to apply to offences that were committed before Monday.
News reports initially claimed that a first information report in Delhi was the first case registered under the new laws. However, Union home minister Amit Shah clarified that the first case was filed in Madhya Pradesh, NDTV reported.
“It’s a lie that the first case was registered against a street vendor [in Delhi],” Shah told reporters. “The first case was lodged at 12.10 am in Gwalior for the theft of a motorcycle worth Rs 1.80 lakh.”
The first information report in Delhi was registered at 1.57 am against a street vendor for allegedly obstructing a public space, The Indian Express reported. This is the first case filed under the new laws in the national capital.
The street vendor, Pankaj Kumar, had allegedly encroached on public land near the New Delhi Railway Station and was selling mangoes and other items near a public washroom under a foot-over-bridge, the newspaper quoted Sub-Inspector Kartik Meena of the Kamla Nagar Police Station as saying.
The first information report was filed under a provision of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to “danger or obstruction in a public way or a line of navigation” (section 285).
According to the first information report, “[Kumar] was selling mangoes after setting up his stall, apart from selling water, cigarette and other items, hence creating encroachment to the path and blocking the public’s way,” The Indian Express reported.
“He was told repeatedly to remove the stall on the said day, however, he did not abide by the directions,” the report added.
At 12.30 am on Monday, a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered in Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district in connection with the registration papers of a truck.
At 1 am, the Charminar Police Station in Telangana’s Hyderabad also registered a case against two men, under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, for riding a motorcycle without proper license plates.
An hour later, the Rajendranagar Police Station in Hyderabad also registered a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in connection with the death of a driver who crashed his car into a divider on the PV Narasimha Rao Expressway, reported The Hindu.
On the implementation of the three new laws, Shah on Monday said that it imparted an “Indian ethos” to the country’s criminal justice system.
“Instead of punishment, there will now be justice,” the home minister said. “Instead of delays, there will now be speedy trials and speedy justice. Earlier, only the rights of the police were protected. Now, the rights of victims and complainants will also be protected.”
Shah also denied that the laws had been passed without adequate discussions in Parliament.
“It is also being falsely said that the bills were brought in after [Opposition] members were suspended,” he said. “The bills were already listed before the Business Advisory Committee. Perhaps the Opposition didn’t want to participate in the debates at all.”
The new laws have been implemented despite experts, rights groups and state governments expressing concerns and calling for them to be reviewed.
Experts have pointed out that the laws increase the state’s power to collect personal data and seize property. The laws also make it more difficult to secure bail and file first information reports.
Punishments for crimes such as lynching, endangering national security and terrorism have been made more stringent.
The three laws were passed in the Winter Session of Parliament on December 21 in the absence of several Opposition MPs.
A hundred Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha, in addition to 46 in the Rajya Sabha, were suspended during the session for disrupting House proceedings as they demanded a discussion on the December 13 security breach in the Lok Sabha chamber.
Opposition criticises new laws
The Opposition on Monday accused the Union government of forcibly passing the new laws in Parliament, describing them as “bulldozer justice”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party were “pretending” to respect the Constitution.
“But the truth is that the three laws of the criminal justice system that are being implemented from today were forcibly passed by suspending 146 MPs,” he said on social media. “INDIA [bloc] will no longer allow this ‘Bulldozer Justice’ to run on the parliamentary system.”
Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose said that the new laws were “highly regressive”.
On social media, she said: “The new laws and the old IPC [Indian Penal Code] will continue at the same time because crimes can’t be judged retrospectively. Result = complete mess in judicial system.”
Also read: Are India’s police prepared to enforce the new criminal laws on July 1?
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