OPPN MEMBERS PEN DISSENT NOTE ON LEGAL ALTERATIONS

A number of Opposition members in Parliament's standing committee on home affairs are set to give dissent notes on the panel's report on three bills that are set to replace the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act, people aware of developments said on Wednesday.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

The 30-member committee, which is reviewing the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita, has 10 members from opposition parties. It is headed by Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Brij Lal. The developments came a day after HT reported that the panel is likely to ask for a gender-neutral adultery law, the return of Section 377 for nonconsensual sex etw women and transgender people, and more clarity on the definitions of community service and life imprisonment.

Two Opposition members -former Union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram and Trinamool Congress's Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O'Brien -- have written to Lal, opposing any haste in adopting the report and suggesting that more time should be spent on reviewing the three bills, according to the people cited above.

Opposition members are also set to express reservations on the presence of some provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and other anti-terror laws in BNS, and object to ditional powers to magistrates to order finger impressions and voice samples from a person who has not been arrested.