New Delhi:

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said on Saturday, “The newly enacted Penal Code transforms the legal framework of criminal justice in India into a new era.”

Addressing a conference on India’s criminal justice system organized by the Ministry of Law and Justice, he said India has made much-needed improvements to protect victims’ interests and effectively investigate and prosecute crimes.

“India is about to undergo major reforms in its criminal justice system with the implementation of three new penal codes. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam will replace the Indian Penal Code 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code 1973 The Evidence Act and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively marked watersheds in our society as no law affects the day-to-day conduct of our society like the criminal law.”

Criminal law guides the moral arc of a nation. The underlying rationale for the substantive clause is the age-old principle of harm, best summed up in the sentence: “Your right to swing your arm ends where the other person’s nose begins.” He added that procedural law governs from the start of criminal proceedings to the conviction of a crime, ensuring that no one is charged and subsequently convicted without due process of law.

Chief Justice Chandrachud, while speaking at a conference on Pathways for Progress in the Administration of Criminal Justice System in India, said: “Our laws and their implementation are an evolving area. There is no final word on any law or the way it is implemented. However, we One must be willing to embrace positive changes to meet the needs of the times.”

“I expect that as the new criminal code is implemented we will identify loopholes and areas that need to be addressed. Debates like this will help improve the efficiency of our criminal justice system. However, the ideological framework at the heart of our criminal justice system cannot be analyzed It must be justice-driven and civil liberties-centered, balancing the interests of victims and defendants,” he added.

“Our laws need to address these issues and eliminate age-old problems such as delays in questioning witnesses, trial conclusions, prison overcrowding and the problem of prisoners awaiting trial,” he said.

Report No. 248 of the Standing Committee of the Union House on the Bharatiya Sakshya Samhita on November 10, 2023 stated that the Indian criminal justice system has struggled to keep up with the profound technological changes in our socio-economic environment that have fundamentally Our socioeconomic environment reimagines the way crime manifests itself in society.

The ever-increasing scope of technology and new age crime, which utilizes the digital environment to create a network of collaborative units to commit crimes, cannot be attributed to the circumstances of the investigation. He said this created challenges for criminal investigation, receiving evidence, prosecuting and delivering justice.

As the distinguished American jurist Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said in “The Law of Science—The Science of the Law,” “Everyone instinctively recognizes that in this day and age, the law is just for us. Sex cannot be what our fathers have always followed, it must find what the governing powers of society have determined in the assistance provided by law to achieve social goals,” he added.

Three laws, namely, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023; and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, have replaced the earlier criminal laws, namely the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 Law. According to the notice, these criminal laws will come into effect on July 1.

Other dignitaries present at the meeting included Minister of State for Law and Justice (Independent Charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal, Attorney General of India R Venkataramani, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, Legal Secretary to the Government of India Rajiv Mani, among others.

The conference aims to showcase the highlights of the three criminal laws and organize meaningful interactions through technical and question-and-answer sessions. In addition, judges of various courts, lawyers, academicians, representatives of law enforcement agencies, police, prosecutors, district administrative officials and law students also participated in the meeting.

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