New Delhi: Days after holding deliberations with experts, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home will once again meet on September 22 and 23 to continue deliberations on Bills to replace IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act.
Law Commission Chairman Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice (Retd) Satish Chandra among others will give opinion to the panel.
According to the notice issued on September 19, the next meeting has been called on September 22 and 23 of the department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs to hear the views of the domain experts
on various aspects of three Bills – The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhit, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill 2023.
It further sasid that on Friday, Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Chairman of the Law Commission and Dr Adish C Aggarwala (senior advocate) President, Supreme Court Bar Association will be attending the meeting.
On Saturday, Justice (retired) Satish Chandra and Utkarsh Sharma advocate of the Supreme Court will appear before the committee in the morning and during the noon KL Janjani and Sanjeev Deshpande, both senior advocates
will appear before the committee.
On September 11, Praveen Sinha, former chief of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday gave a detailed presentation on the three criminal justice bills with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, sources said.
The source said that in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on these bills, former CBI Director presented a comparative study of the old laws and changes in the new bills.
Besides Sinha, Joint Secretary of Legal Affairs Department Dr Padmini Singh and BPR&D officer Anupama Nilekar Chandra also presented their views.
The source further said that during the meeting the experts gave presentations on the three bills — the criminal justice laws through the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Bill and Bharatiya Sakshya Bill.
Last month, the standing committee, chaired by Rajya Sabha MP Brijlal, had held its first set of meetings to examine the three bills.
The meetings, held from August 24 to 26, saw home secretary A. K. Bhalla making a detailed presentation to the MPs on the provisions of the three bills. Many opposition MPs, particularly from the DMK, objected to Hindi
nomenclatures of the bills and questioned the short 15-day window granted to the committee members to study the bills and submit their views.
Congress MP Digvijaya Singh accused the government of “bulldozing” through the consultation process.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien wondered why the committee’s first meeting was held days before it was due to be reconstituted.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 11 in Lok Sabha introduced three bills saying these Bills will completely overhaul the British-era Indian criminal laws, the Indian Penal Code (1860), Code of Criminal Procedure
(1898), and the Indian Evidence Act (1872).
Shah introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023 which seeks to replace the IPC, the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita Bill which seeks to replace the CrPC and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 which seeks to replace the Indian Evidence Act, in Lok Sabha on the last day of the monsoon session.
Referring to the three bills for consideration of the Parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, Shah said that the earlier laws strengthened British rule, while the proposed laws will protect the rights of the citizens and give speedy justice to the people.
(IANS)
