Understanding the significant changes in 3 criminal law bills

The Union government on Tuesday proposed to expand the definition of "terrorist act" under the penal law by bringing within its fold threats to "economic security" and "monetary stability of the country, while not including a parliamentary panel's recommendation to include a gender-neutral provision criminalising adultery and a clause to separately criminalise non-consensual gay sex.

- Utkarsh Anand

Among the other notable changes, the revised Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita Bill, 2023, which was tabled by Union home minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday to replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), added two new provisions to define "cruelty" against women in a marital relationship and to penalise the publication of court proceedings that may disclose the identity of a rape victim.

Shah, on Tuesday, also introduced the two other updated criminal law bills -- Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Sanhita, and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, which are set to replace the Indian Evidence Act and Code of Criminal Procedure (CPC) respectively. The bills will be debated on Thursday, the home minister informed the House.

The three criminal law bills, which were first introduced by the government in August, were referred in the same month to the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs for review. Shah on Monday withdrew the original bills to reintroduce their modified versions, incorporating the panel's recommendations.

Community service explained

While the previous version of the bill on the penal code for the first time in the country had proposed to introduce community service as one of the punishments for "petty" offences, including for criminal defamation, the new bill to replace the CrPC has now defined what the "community service" would mean. The new bill states that community service shall mean the work which the court may order a convict to perform as a form of punishment that benefits the community, for which the convict shall not be entitled to any remuneration. It also clarifies that magistrates of first and second class can now pass orders sentencing offenders to community service.

Terrorism defined