{"id":36805,"date":"2023-08-11T05:05:09","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T23:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=36805"},"modified":"2025-04-22T01:47:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T20:17:05","slug":"bharatiya-nyaya-sanhita-bill-2023-background-objectives-provisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bharatiya-nyaya-sanhita-bill-2023-background-objectives-provisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023 \u2013 Background, Objectives, Provisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Background<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Key Highlights of the BNS Bill, 2023<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Central government has introduced three new Bills in the Lok Sabha that propose a complete overhaul of the country\u2019s criminal justice system.<\/li>\n<li>The three Bills are set to replace the <strong>Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860<\/strong>; the <strong>Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973<\/strong> and the <strong>Indian Evidence Act, 1872<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The Bills \u2014 <strong>Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023<\/strong>, to replace the IPC; <strong>Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023<\/strong>, for CrPC; and <strong>Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023<\/strong>, for the Indian Evidence Act \u2014 were referred to a standing committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Home Affairs in 2020 had constituted a committee headed by <strong>Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir Singh<\/strong>, former Vice Chancellor of National Law University (NLU), Delhi to review the three codes of criminal law.<\/li>\n<li>The mandate of the committee was to \u2018recommend reforms in the criminal laws of the country in a principled, effective and efficient manner \u2013\n<ul>\n<li>which ensures the safety and security of the individual, the community and the nation; and<\/li>\n<li>which prioritises the constitutional values of justice, dignity and the inherent worth of the individual,\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In February the committee submitted its recommendations on the criminal law amendments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian Penal Code was drafted by the first Law Commission which was chaired by <strong>Thomas Babington Macaulay<\/strong> in 1834. The code came into force in January, 1860.<\/li>\n<li>The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023 will repeal and replace the IPC.<\/li>\n<li>The BNS Bill proposes several changes in the existing provisions including those related to defamation, offence against women and attempt to commit suicide.<\/li>\n<li><strong>While the IPC has 511 sections, the BNS Bill contains 356 provisions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key Highlights of the BNS Bill, 2023<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sedition \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Under the IPC, section 124-A deals with offence of sedition and prescribes sentence of life imprisonment or imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added.<\/li>\n<li>In the BNS Bill, provision 150 under the chapter pertaining to \u2018<strong>offences against the State<\/strong>\u2019 talks about acts endangering sovereignty unity and integrity of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Terrorism \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>For the first time, word <strong>terrorism has been defined under the BNS Bill<\/strong> which was not there under the IPC.<\/li>\n<li>A terrorist has been defined as one who commits any act in India or a foreign country with the intention to threaten the unity, integrity and security of India, to intimidate the general public or a segment thereof, or to disturb public order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Now, in the BNS Bill, the <strong>offence of defamation carries a simple imprisonment of up to two years, or with fine, or with both or with community service<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mob Lynching \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Notably, for the first time <strong>capital punishment has been introduced for the offence of mob lynching <\/strong>apart from the offence being made punishable with 7 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Sexual exploitation of women on the pretext of marriage, job, promotions or by concealing identity will be considered a crime.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>new Bill omits the provision for the offence of adultery<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This is in line with the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in 2018 in the case of <strong>Joseph Shine v. Union of India<\/strong>, where Section 497 of the IPC, which criminalized adultery, was held to be unconstitutional.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>new Bill does not include any punishment for \u2018unnatural sexual offences against men\u2019<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This is in line with the Supreme Court\u2019s unanimous reading down of Section 377 of the IPC as far as it criminalised same-sex relations between consenting adults in <strong>Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India<\/strong> (2018).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>provision legalising marital rape has however been retained<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Exception 2 to Section 63 (which defines the offence of rape) reads\u2013\u2019Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>While the punishment for the offence of murder is covered under section 302 of the IPC, it has been covered under provision 101 of the BNS Bill.\n<ul>\n<li>The punishment for murder, that is life term or death sentence, remains unchanged.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Speedy Legal Procedure \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the proposed Bill, a chargesheet will have to be filed within 90 days, and the court can give permission for another 90 days.<\/li>\n<li>Probe will have to be completed in 180 days and sent for trial. After trial, judgment will have to be given in 30 days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) When was the first Law Commission formed?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The first Law Commission was formed in 1834 as a result of the Charter Act, 1833 under the chairmanship of TB Macaulay. The first commission&#8217;s recommendations resulted in the codification of the penal code and the Criminal Procedure Code.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)\u00a0 Who is known as the father of Indian Evidence Act, 1872?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Indian Evidence Act introduced a standard set of law applicable to all Indians. The law is mainly based upon the firm work of Sir<strong> James Fitzjames Stephen<\/strong>, who could be called the founding father of this comprehensive piece of legislation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/economy\/news\/section-302-is-not-murder-and-section-420-not-cheating-proposed-code-123081100924_1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Section 302 is not murder and Section 420 not cheating: Proposed Code<\/u><\/a> |\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/amit-shah-bills-reforming-indias-criminal-justice-system-8887532\/#:~:text=The%20Bills%20%E2%80%94%20Bharatiya%20Nyaya%20Sanhita,referred%20to%20a%20standing%20committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023 replaces the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}