(L to R) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin; Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Credit: PTI Photos
Chennai, DHNS: Accusing the Union Government of replacing three criminal laws in “haste without adequate deliberations and consultations”, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding that the new laws be “withheld” till states and other stakeholders are consulted.
In a letter to Shah, Stalin spoke in detail about the issues faced by state governments in implementation of the three new criminal laws enacted by the Union Government repealing the existing Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, that are likely to come into effect from July 1, 2024.
“The replacement of the above-mentioned three Acts has been done in haste without adequate deliberations and consultations. These enactments are falling within List III— concurrent list of the Constitution of India and hence extensive consultation ought to have been done with the State Government,” Stalin conveyed in his letter to Shah.
The Chief Minister added that states were not given adequate time to express their views and the new laws were passed by the Parliament without the participation of Opposition parties.
Stalin also wrote that 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.
“It is mandatory that all Acts passed by the Parliament shall be in English. In addition, there are some fundamental errors in these enactments,” Stalin said. He pointed out that for instance, Section 103 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has two subsections for two distinct classes of murder but with the same punishment.
There are some more provisions in BNSS and BNS which 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, Stalin added.
The capacity building and other technological requirements for the stakeholder departments like judiciary, police, prisons, prosecution and forensic need sufficient resources and time, Stalin said.
“I request the Union Government to review the new enactments after taking into consideration the views of all the States and other key stakeholders and withhold the aforesaid enactments already notified,” the chief minister added.