The three newly rechristened laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill (Indian Evidence Act, 1872) — have brought some disturbing and welcome changes

Detention, secession

Section 187, which has replaced Section 167 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, authorises a judicial magistrate to detain an accused person in police custody for a staggering period of up to 90 days. This is in contrast to the earlier Section 167 under which a person could at the most be remanded in police custody for a maximum of 15 days.

Section 124A — the sedition law under the erstwhile IPC which imposed life imprisonment — has now been replaced through the introduction of Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 152 says: “Whoever, purposely or knowingly, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or by electronic communication or by use of financial mean, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite, secession or armed rebellion or subversive activities, or encourages feelings of separatist activities or endangers sovereignty or unity and integrity of India; or indulges in or commits any such act shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

The explanation appended to the new provision offers what appears to be a consolation: “Comments expressing disapprobation of the measures, or administrative or other action of the Government with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means without exciting or attempting to excite the activities referred to in this section do not constitute an offence under this section.”

IPC Section 377, which criminalised non-consensual unnatural sex between two persons irrespective of their gender, has been removed from the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Hate, terror

Under the earlier IPC, there was no provision for dealing with mob lynching or hate crimes. Under the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Section 103 (1) has been inserted, which says: “When a group of five or more persons acting in concert commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other similar ground, each member of such group shall be punished with death or with imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”

For the first time, a separate offence categorising terrorist activity that entails punishment of death or life imprisonment has been prescribed under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 113.

The provision says: “Whoever does any act with the intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, sovereignty, security, or economic security of India or with the intent to strike terror or likely to strike terror in the people or any section of the people in India or in any foreign country, (a) by using bombs, dynamite or other explosive substance or inflammable substance or firearms or other lethal weapons or poisonous or noxious gases or other chemicals or by any other substance (whether biological, radioactive, nuclear or otherwise) of a hazardous nature or by any other means of whatever nature to cause or likely to cause — (i) death of, or injury to, any person or persons; or (ii) loss of, or damage to, or destruction of, property; or

“Whoever commits a terrorist act shall,— (a) if such offence has resulted in the death of any person, be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine; (b) in any other case, be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Police now have to mandatorily register an FIR within three days of a complaint. Specific timelines have been prescribed for pronouncement of judgements within 45 days after conclusion of the trial. In cases where punishment is seven years or more, the victims shall be given an opportunity to be heard before the withdrawal of the case by the government.

The new Bharatiya Sakshya Bill provides for a radical change by infusing electronic evidence which includes “…any information given electronically, which would permit appearance of witnesses, accused, experts and victims through electronic means; (ii) it provides for admissibility of an electronic or digital record as evidence having the same legal effect, validity and enforceability as any other document…”