'Biggest reforms? Not at all': Chidambaram counters Amit Shah on new criminal laws; calls their enactment an exercise in 'cut and paste'
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister
P Chidambaram
on Wednesday asserted that the enactment of the three new criminal laws was an exercise in "cut and paste", a day after Union home minister
Amit Shah
described the new laws as the "biggest reforms since Independence."
Also Read | 'Affordable, accessible and approachable': Amit Shah unveils new criminal laws
"Government has claimed, repeatedly, that the three Criminal Law Bills, now Acts, are the biggest reforms since Independence. Nothing can be farther from the truth," Chidambaram wrote on X.
He recalled his dissent note which had a section-by-section comparison of the new laws with the earlier ones. The study, he claimed, found that 90-95 per cent of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 95 per cent of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and 99 per cent of the Indian Evidence Act were incorporated into the new laws.
"The assertion in my dissent note was not challenged in Parliament or elsewhere. I maintain that the new Bills, now Acts, are overwhelmingly a 'cut and paste' exercise, with a few new provisions added - some acceptable and some not acceptable," Chidambaram posted.
"The whole exercise was a waste and has only created confusion in the the administration of justice among judges, lawyers and the police," the ex-home and finance minister added.
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The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) came into effect on July 1 last year, succeeding the colonial era IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act, respectively.
'New criminal laws will be transformational': Amit Shah
Addressing an event to mark one year of the rolling out of the the BNS, BNSS and BSA, Shah said that as all processes under these are online, nothing would be overlooked and justice would be delivered on time.
"These laws are going to transform the criminal justice system in the country significantly. I assure all the citizens of India that it will take a maximum of three years for the full implementation of the new laws. I can also confidently say that anyone can get justice up to the Supreme Court within three years of filing an FIR," he stated.
The home minister made the remarks at the programme, "A Golden Year of Trust in the Justice System", in Delhi on Tuesday.
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