Amnesty International India expressed concern that the provisions of the amendments to and overhaul of the criminal laws in India would have debilitating consequences on the effective realization of the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and fair trial.
Three new criminal laws, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhinayam (BSA), come into effect replacing three British-era laws in India from July 1.
Its Chair of Board Akar Patel disputed the claims of the Indian government that sedition laws have been done away with are untrue and instead have been brought back after being suspended in 2022 by the Supreme Court of India.
“The BNS adds a new provision criminalizing ‘acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India’ which reads the same as the old sedition law. Further, it increases the minimum punishment under the law to seven years”, he said.
“The new Code of Criminal Procedure or BNSS allows the police to seek 15-day custody of an accused any time before the completion of 40-60 days of the allowed remand period instead of only the first two weeks after an arrest. This lack of clarity provides a fertile breeding ground for torture and other ill-treatment” he added.
Similar to the Indian Evidence Act, Amnesty India said that the BSA allows the admissibility of electronic records as evidence. In the absence of a robust data protection law and given the documented misuse of electronic evidence in the Bhima Koregaon case and Newsclick case, the new law leaves room for abuse.
“The laws in their current form will be used as pretext to violate the rights of all those who dare speak truth to power. The three new criminal laws in India must be immediately repealed and brought in line with international human rights standards to prevent the continued flagrant misuse to crackdown on peaceful dissent in the country,” it added.
