'VICTIM-CENTRIC LAWS TO ENSURE SWIFT AND TIMELY JUSTICE'

COLONIAL-ERA LAWS WILL GO NOT JUST IN WORD BUT IN SPIRIT: AMIT SHAH WITH a triad of new laws replacing the legal core of colonial-era criminal justice the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) originally created in 1882, and the 1872-vintage Indian Evidence Act-Union Home Minister Amit Shah foresees that India will have the most modern justice system in the world.

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One of the ills it addresses is the frustrating slowness of the existing system, where the process becomes the punishment. Shah says people will now not have to wait for years to get justice. "Justice will be delivered to the victims under the new laws in three years. The ‘tarikh pe tarikh'era has gone into the abyss," he says, alluding to a popular Bollywood dialogue on the culture of court hearing adjournments. This systemic reform, according to him, will happen in complete sync with the spirit of the Constitution of India.

In a freewheeling interview with Santwana Bhattacharya and Rajesh Kumar Thakur, Shah takes questions on various facets of the three new laws-the Bharatiya Nagarik Surakasha (Second) Sanhita, 2023; the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, 2023; and Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill, 2023. The first proper revamp of a 160-year-old criminal justice system, Shah calls it "a historic step towards realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve to eliminate every symbol of slavery and the colonial mindset from the justice system." Excerpts: You say the three new laws will bring a comprehensive change in India's criminal justice system, and also free citizens from the colonial mindset. How? The new laws have three dimensions, and they must be seen from three perspectives. Then only can one understand the larger picture. Firstly, as I have said, these laws represent and embody a fully Bharatiya nyaya vyavastha (Indian justice system), which liberates us from the colonial mindset for the first time after Independence. Two, after implementation, they will become the world's most modernised criminal justice system, in line with the technological era.