Editor's Pick | New criminal laws in force; Cr.PC, IPC applicable only for old cases

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) are now officially into effect as the new criminal laws in India, starting 12 a.m. on July 1. The BNS, which replaces the Indian Penal Code, 1860, may also be amended soon by the Union government to incorporate a missing section on sexual crimes against men and transgender persons. According to a senior government official, police officers were being asked to invoke other allied sections under the BNS, such as wrongful confinement and physical hurt, if they get such complaints, until an amendment is brought to correct this anomaly. The BNSS replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and prescribes the procedure and conditions for arrest, bail, and custody, among others. The central government has also said that States were free to bring in their own amendments to some provisions of the BNSS. The BS replaces the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. More than 650 district courts and 16,000 police stations across the country now have to migrate to the new system, but the IPC and CrPC will run concurrently along with the new laws as several cases are still pending in courts and some crimes that took place before July 1 but are reported later will have to be registered under the IPC. The Union Ministry is also testing eSakshya, a mobile-based application to help the police record the scene of the crime, and search and seizure operations in a criminal case and upload the file on a cloud-based platform, hosted by the National Informatics Centre. One common criticism of the new criminal laws has been that it is unnecessary to refer to them wholly in their Hindi names. Every law in India has an official translation in the respective official language of every State. The objective of having Hindi names is apparently an attempt to symbolise the de-anglicisation of criminal law, but a preliminary scroll through the new laws indicates that much of the original language is retained. The Hindu’s Editorials New beginnings: On India’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 win ​Weaponising PMLA: On the Hemant Soren case The Hindu’s Daily Quiz Who is the Finance Minister of Maharashtra? Devendra Fadnavis Deepak Kesarkar Ajit Pawar Kagda Chandya Padvi To know the answer and to play the full quiz, click here. [logo] Editor's Pick 01 July 2024 [The Hindu logo] [EP Logo] Editor's Pick 01 July 2024 In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( New criminal laws in force; Cr.PC, IPC applicable only for old cases The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) are now officially into effect as the [new criminal laws in India]( starting 12 a.m. on July 1.  The BNS, which replaces the Indian Penal Code, 1860, may also be amended soon by the Union government to incorporate a missing section on sexual crimes against men and transgender persons. According to a senior government official, police officers were being asked to invoke other allied sections under the BNS, such as wrongful confinement and physical hurt, if they get such complaints, until an amendment is brought to correct this anomaly. The BNSS replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and prescribes the procedure and conditions for arrest, bail, and custody, among others. The central government has also said that States were free to bring in their own amendments to some provisions of the BNSS. The BS replaces the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. More than 650 district courts and 16,000 police stations across the country now have to migrate to the new system, but the IPC and CrPC will run concurrently along with the new laws as several cases are still pending in courts and some crimes that took place before July 1 but are reported later will have to be registered under the IPC. The Union Ministry is also testing eSakshya, a mobile-based application to help the police record the scene of the crime, and search and seizure operations in a criminal case and upload the file on a cloud-based platform, hosted by the National Informatics Centre. One common criticism of the [new criminal laws]( has been that it is unnecessary to refer to them wholly in their Hindi names. Every law in India has an official translation in the respective official language of every State. The objective of having Hindi names is apparently an attempt to symbolise the de-anglicisation of criminal law, but a preliminary scroll through the new laws indicates that much of the original language is retained. The Hindu’s Editorials [Arrow][New beginnings: On India’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 win]( [Arrow][​Weaponising PMLA: On the Hemant Soren case]( The Hindu’s Daily Quiz Who is the Finance Minister of Maharashtra? - Devendra Fadnavis - Deepak Kesarkar - Ajit Pawar - Kagda Chandya Padvi To know the answer and to play the full quiz, [click here](. 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