Three bills have been introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha in the last monsoon session of the Parliament. It is apparently said to replace the existing Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.
According to reports from the source LIVEMINT, It was mentioned by Amit Shah that the three bills the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 will be sent to a parliamentary panel for further scrutiny.
The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita proposes that a minimum of 20 years prison will be granted to the person convicted with charges of gang rape along with the maximum punishment being life imprisonment.
According to reports from a source THE QUINT, the bill reads, “Rigorous imprisonment for not less than 20 years but which may extend to imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life and with fine.”
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita proposes imprisonment for false promise of marriage. In this bill it is stated that, “Whoever, by deceitful means or making by promise to marry to a woman without any intention of fulfilling the same, and has sexual intercourse with her, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.”
Not only these, Amit Shah also mentioned about the government proposing death penalty for raping a minor. It was stated in the bill that, “Where a woman under eighteen years of age is raped by one or more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape and shall be punished with 20 imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and with fine, or with death.”
According to reports, Amit Shah in the lower house of Parliament said, “The laws that will be repealed… the focus of those law was to protect and strengthen the British administration, the idea was to punish and not to give justice. By replacing them, the new three laws will bring the spirit to protect the rights of the Indian citizen. From 1860 to 2023, the country’s criminal justice system functioned as per the laws made by the British. With these three laws there will be a major change in the criminal justice system in the country.”