Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023: relevance and challenges

Abstract

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS); The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS); and The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA), have been introduced to reform and modernise India’s aging criminal justice system which has replaced The Indian Penal Code 1860, The Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, and The Indian Evidence Act, 1872, respectively. The new legislative frameworks have been drafted meticulously to meet the contemporary legal, technological, and societal challenges. The IPC, 1860 has served as the bedrock of India’s criminal justice system for a century but has been replaced because of its outdated provisions (as they don’t reflect the current socio-economic and technological dynamics), complexity and ambiguity in the interpretation of provisions, offender-centric approach focus, procedural delays and backlogs in the court systems, and it served as a colonial legacy. BNS has 358 Sections, reduced from 511 in the IPC. It introduces 21 new crimes, extends the duration of imprisonment in 41 crimes, raises fines for 82 crimes, introduces minimum punishments for 25 crimes, includes community service as a penalty in six crimes and removes 19 sections. BNS aims to streamline the legal framework by reducing redundancy, nevertheless, it poses challenges in the following context, marital rape remains unrecognized as a criminal act; the offences of sexual harassment, stalking, and rape continue to be gender-specific; defamation continues to be categorised as a criminal act; complete omission of Section 377- effective decriminalisation of bestiality and non-consensual same-sex intercourse; the offence of sedition replaced by ‘act endangering sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India’; lack of provisions to address the growing use of facial recognition technology; and inadequate training of law enforcement and judicial personnel.