FROM MACAULAY TO BNS: HOW INDIA IS REWRITING ITS CRIMINAL RULEBOOK

Late in November 2025, Delhi police swept up a group of students protesting at India Gate - first charging them under routine public-order sections, then adding Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Section 197 (imputations prejudicial to national integration).

- TDG NETWORK

Officers explained that Section 197, a new offense in the BNS, penalizes “imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration”, including the spreading of “false information that endangers India’s sovereignty, unity, or security”. Rights groups quickly noted this was the first known use of BNS $197, raising questions over its reach and constitutionality. What began as a campus sloganeering case has thus become a flashpoint in a sweeping debate over India's freshly minted criminal laws - and whether they representa true break from colonial-era statutes or merely arelabeling of old authority.

COLONIAL ROOTS: THE OLD CRIMINAL CODES

India’s criminal justice system has been built on statutes passed under British rule. The Indian Penal Code (IPC), drafted by Lord Macaulay's committee, was enacted in 1860 and came into force in 1862. It, along with the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC, first enacted in 1861 and reenacted in 1973) and the Indian Evidence Act (1872), have formed the core of India’s criminal law since. These Victorian-era laws were intended for a colonial order: as PM Modi noted in late 2024, they were “made by the British... to punish Indians and enslave them”. For decades after independence, India’s legislatures amended and added to these codes, but the framework remained essentially unchanged, a legacy many viewed as a vestige of colonial control.