New criminal laws take effect

Three new criminal laws will come into effect across the country from Monday, bringing widespread changes in India's criminal justice system and ending colonial-era laws.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam will replace the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

The new laws will bring in a modern justice system, incorporating provisions such as Zero FIR, online registration of police complaints, summons through electronic modes such as SMS and mandatory video footage of scene of a heinous crime. The experts have thereby tried to address some of the current social realities and provide a mechanism to effectively deal with these, keeping in view the ideals enshrined in the Constitution.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who piloted the laws, said the new laws would give priority to providing justice, unlike the British-era laws that gave primacy to penal action.

"These laws are made by Indians, for Indians and by an Indian Parliament and marks the end of colonial criminal justice laws," he said. Shah said the laws were not just about changing the nomenclature but bringing about a complete overhaul.

"Soul, body and spirit" of the new laws is Indian, he said.