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Chennai: Notwithstanding its opposition to implementation of three new criminal laws replacing IPC, CrPC, and Evidence Act, the Tamil Nadu government has fast-tracked translation of the new acts from English into Tamil, besides providing necessary training to those in the judiciary and police department.
The government’s efforts come even as Chief Minister M K Stalin, in a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in mid-June, demanded deferment of implementation of the new laws pending consultation with state governments citing practical issues.
Stalin, in the letter, spoke in detail about the issues faced by state governments in implementation of the three new criminal laws which will replace the existing Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
The three new acts Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023 are named in Sanskrit, which is in clear violation of Article 348 of the Constitution of India, Stalin had told Shah.
Stalin, in reply to a question raised by members in the Assembly on June 28, said not just the new laws will be implemented from July 1, the government had also updated the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems) software for the purpose.
“We have been opposing the repealing of three old acts from the beginning,” Stalin said, suggesting that the state government had no option but to implement the new laws from July 1 as announced by the Union Government.
Sources in the police department told DH that the work on translating the three new laws into Tamil from English have been fast-tracked and is likely to be completed “very soon.”
“Once the translation work is completed and we are satisfied with it, we will send it to the Union Government for approval following which it will be circulated to the concerned,” a government source said.
Though the government says it has given necessary training, lawyers in the Madras High Court and district courts continue to protest against the new laws. The advocates have warned of continuous protests from July 1 if the Union Government doesn’t defer the implementation.
“The new laws, which are named in Sanskrit, will adversely affect both litigants and advocates. There should be more consultation with regard to the new criminal laws,” S Prabakaran, President, Tamil Nadu Advocates Association (TNAA) said.
The state government had flagged that some provisions in BNSS and BNS are ambiguous or self-contradictory and implementation of these new laws will require discussions with academic institutions and revision of syllabus for Law College students which require sufficient time.
The capacity building and other technological requirements for the stakeholder departments like judiciary, police, prisons, prosecution and forensic need sufficient resources and time, the government felt.