Revoke The New Criminal Laws; They Will Push The Country Into Police Raj;

Jul5,2024 | Gautam Jalandhari | Ludhiana

Poor and the marginalized will find it hard to get justice - -Warn the Left Parties The Left Parties demanded that the new criminal laws be scrapped hence forth as they will push the country into Police Raj and devoid the poor from getting justice. The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI M) parties held a rally at Ludhiana today at the Mini Secretariat. They condemned the government for passing these in Parliament without any discussion after expelling the opposition members Speaking on the occasion the speakers criticised the government for falsification of the facts and make claims that through these laws they have done away with the colonial legacy. Truth of the matter is that Indian criminal laws developed after several inputs by the experts from time to time and the present Criminal Penal Code was finalized after Several rounds of discussions among the experts of the 6th Law Commission from 1961 onwards which led to the rejection of previous system practised by the British rulers and formulated the CrPC in 1973 which existed till 30th June 2024. So the government’s contention and hype that it has done away with the colonial legacy in the criminal laws is total falsification of the fact. In fact barring a very few provisions all the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) has same clauses as the CrPC. Under the new laws if the punishment in a case is from 3-7 years, then the SHO will have to discretion whether to register or not to register FIR. This will institutionalize corruption, give power the political clout and make the SHO powerful enough to register or not even in heinous crimes. The victim will have to run from pillar to post to get the FIR registered. The Supreme Court had issued a judgment that if the offence is cognizable then police is bound to register FIR. If the police refuses to do so, action should be taken under the law against concerned police officer. But the new law will give complete impunity to the police on this. Till now the police had the power to remand a person only up to 15 days; thereafter the accused had to be presented before the court for any further remand. The court would decide whether to give further police remand or to send the accused to judicial custody (Jail). Normally it has become a practice, depending on the severity of the crime, for the police to present the person to the court and in practice it has been 2-3 days generally. Now under the BNSS the person can be kept in the police lockup till the charge sheet is filed and that period varies from 60 days for an offence for which punishment is 3-7 years and 90 days for punishment more than 7 years. This is I fact even more serious than arrest under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS). Even in this act the police could not keep a person for more than 15 days. This will impact the right to life and right to dignity of a citizen enshrined in our constitution. Poor people will be subjected to police excesses. Even in the UAPA the police had the power to keep a person for a maximum 30 days after which the DSP had to plead to the court he reason for further remand. So present BNSS is even worse than the most draconian laws as in the BNSS there is no cap on the police to keep the person. So the person will have to approach the judiciary for relief which is not going to be possible for an ordinary person. Justice V R Krishna Iyer had struck down the provisions to handcuff because it took away person liberty till the person is an accused. Handcuff was allowed only in exceptional cases. But now handcuffing has been allowed in several cases and also in the case of repeat or habitual offender. The habitual offender could be a person against whom multiple FIRs have been registered but not convicted under any of them. Even the power of attachment of properties in some cases which was with the judiciary or special agencies has now been given to police. This will lead India to a police state where liberties and human rights of a citizen will be extensively curbed. A new category of voluntary witnesses had been added which is going to create problems. There is going to develop a serious issue as the two types of laws that is laws which existed before 1st July and the new once will be mixed up several situations. This crisis may last for 20-30 years. The pendency rate will increase many times. Those who addressed include Comrades D P Maur, Dr Arun Mitra, Baljit Singh Saahi, S S Lotey, Chamkaur Singh, M S Bhatia, Satnam Singh Varraich, Dr Rajinder Pal singh Aulakh, Dr Gurvinder Singh, Vijay Kumar, N.S.Kala, Kewal Singh Banwait, Dr Balwinder Aulakh, Dev Raj, Balbir Singh, Samar, Avtar Chhiber, Bahadar secretariat members, Dr Nika Gurdip Singh, Bhajan. Jaggi, Bagga, Kirpal Singh, Baljit Grewal, Teh Dev Chaudhary, Sonu Gupta, Rambridge, Joginder Ram S S Lotey, Hunuman, Ram bridge tiwari.

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