Replacement of Old Criminal Laws by New: A Reformative Step to Boost Criminal Justice System of India

With the object of accessible and speedy justice to all the citizens and also by considering the long-standing inadequacy and inefficiency of archaic criminal laws, the parliament of India introduced three pivotal criminal laws i.e. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam to overhaul The Indian Penal Code-1860, The Code of Criminal Procedure-1973 and The Indian Evidence Act-1872 respectively. With this discernible effort to get rid of century old colonial criminal era mindset and to uplift the provisions of Indian Constitution, new criminal laws were made effective from 1st July, 2024. To overhaul century old criminal justice system, various committees suggested reforms to the system, which specially includes, Vohra Committee (1993), Malimath Committee (2003), Madhav Menon Committee (2007), etc. Amongst them, major reforms to the criminal justice system in India were envisioned by Justice Malimath Committee through its 158 recommendations in 2003. Though, few of the recommendations were considered and new provisions were introduced in earlier criminal laws, the purpose was not fully accomplished. These reforms, by introduction of new criminal laws in the criminal justice administration will have a profound impact on law enforcement agencies, judiciary and common public. These new enactments are remedy to a long pendency of trials and procedural hurdles while investigation. With an innovative step to investigate alleged offences with imprisonment of seven years or upwards through forensic team will have a positive impact on India’s criminal justice administration. These recent laws are expected to bring liberalization and modernization under the criminal justice system of India.