A Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court allowed the petitioner to withdraw his plea, saying the petitioner narrowly escaped imposition of costs for filing “cavalier, casual” petition.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the three criminal laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act.
A Vacation Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal allowed petitioner-advocate Vishal Tiwari to withdraw, saying he narrowly escaped imposition of costs for filing the petition.
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“Your petition was filed in a casual, cavalier manner,” Justice Mithal told Mr. Tiwari.
“You have decided to withdraw. If you had argued more, we would have imposed costs on you… The petition is dismissed as withdrawn,” Justice Trivedi said.
Justice Trivedi noted the new Acts have not come into force so far.
The petition claimed the new laws, meant to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Evidence Act, suffered from “defects and discrepancies”.
The Lok Sabha had passed the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bills on December 21 last year.
President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Bills on December 25.
The petition said the Bills were passed without parliamentary debate as most of the Opposition members were under suspension.
The plea had sought directions from the court for the immediate constitution of an expert committee to assess the viability of the three new criminal laws.
The three criminal laws to be effective from July 1.
“The new criminal laws are far more draconian and establish a police state in reality and violate every provision of fundamental rights of the people of India. If the British laws were considered colonial and draconian, then the Indian laws stand now far more draconian as, in the British period, you could keep a person in police custody for a maximum of 15 days. Extending 15 days to 90 days and more is a shocking provision enabling police torture,” the plea has said.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita encompasses offences, such as acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, separatist activities or endangering the sovereignty or unity of the country, in a new avatar of the sedition law.
According to the new laws, anyone purposely or knowingly, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, by visible representation, by electronic communication, by use of financial means, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite secession or an armed rebellion or subversive activities, or encourages feelings of separatist activities or endangers the 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 that may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.
According to Section 124A of the IPC, which deals with sedition, anyone involved in the crime may be punished with life imprisonment or with a three-year jail term. Under the new laws, “Rajdroh” has got a new term, “Deshdroh”, doing away with the reference to the British crown.
“Rajdroh” refers to a rebellion or an act against the ruler, while “Deshdroh” represents such acts against the nation.
Also, for the first time, the word “terrorism” has been defined in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. It was absent in the IPC. Under the new laws, a magistrate’s power to impose fines was increased as well as the scope for declaration of proclaimed offender.
