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

India’s criminal justice system has been built on statutes passed under British rule.

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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.

Over the last several decades, old codes were no longer attuned to India’s needs - especially in a digital, rights-conscious era. Parliament repeatedly discussed criminal justice reform, but major overhaul never materialized... until 2023. That year, amid high drama in Parliament, India passed three new criminal statutes: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) replacing the IPC, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replacing the CrPC, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replacing the Evidence Act. All came into force on 1 July 2024. The move was billed as a historic “decolonisation” of India’s laws and a modernization for the 21st century, but it has also drawn fierce scrutiny from judges, lawyers and civil liberties advocates alike.