FROM POLICE COMPLAINTS TO LAW EXAMS, HOW NEW LAWS WILL IMPACT OUR LIVES

The curtains have fallen on the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Evidence Act, and India on July 1 welcomed three new criminal laws. But what have these laws to do with our daily lives, you ask? The new laws are going to change the way you file a police complaint and how cases are investigated by cops. Not only that, the lives of people, including police personnel, lawyers, judicial service aspirants and law students are going to see a huge change, at least in the short term.

The new laws leave the colonial imprint of the previous laws behind, and they bring in a new era of justice, the government stated while ushering in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSAA).

As these new laws get incorporated into the Indian legal system, they will also have to get ingrained in the consciousness of those who are connected to the legal system in India. There are provisions in these laws that change the way complaints are filed, evidence is collected, and policing is done. This will also change the way lawyers prepare to fight cases and judicial aspirants prepare to become judges.

For this reason, these new laws are set to change the lives of many.

The lawyers are studying new sections and clauses for different offences. The police officials are undergoing training regarding the new laws, and they are familiarising themselves with updated software for policing. The law students and judiciary aspirants are now cramming up new laws and their nuances to appear for their exams, after having spent years learning the IPC and CrPC as a part of their education.

IndiaToday.in spoke to police officers, lawyers and law students to understand the changes and how we are transitioning to the new system.

TRIAL AND ERROR WILL SMOOTHEN SYSTEM, SAYS LAWYER

For lawyers, it won't make much of a difference as they can refer to the new laws while preparing for a case. The real challenge is for police personnel as they need to adhere strictly to the protocols to build a watertight case, says a lawyer practising in Delhi.

"The challenge is that more accused could get off the hook as courts could dismiss cases, saying proper procedures weren't followed," says the lawyer, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity and controversy surrounding the new laws.

Opposition leaders have strongly criticised the Centre, saying the government "bulldozed" the new criminal laws through Parliament without adequate debate after the mass suspension of MPs.

Proper training of law enforcement officials is required for the implementation of the New Criminal Laws, he says. "It will be smoothened in due time with a trial-and-error process," he adds.

It all boils down to how police officers are trained and implement the new law, with videography being made mandatory in several instances. Courts have been dismissing cases for not following proper procedures even under the earlier Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973, which was implemented ages ago.

The CrPC has been replaced with the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

TRAINING POLICE PERSONNEL, UPDATING SOFTWARE

On its part, the government has been training police personnel, forensic experts, law officers and government lawyers for a smooth roll-out of the three criminal laws.

Apart from the training, police personnel have been given manuals on the new laws, and are getting accustomed to the new software.

"The change will not be very difficult. It will take sometime though. Many police personnel have been undergoing training since the last six months and have been learning about the new laws," a senior police officer with 30 years of experience told IndiaToday.in.

"We have been given new manuals, one-page capsules and updated software to search for the new laws and clauses for use as and when needed. Now, police stations also have IT-support staff who can help the police personnel with software and computer-related issues," the police officer added.

The new laws change the way evidence is collected and cases are investigated.

The new law mandates forensic investigation for offences punishable with seven years or more imprisonment. It also mandates audio-video recording in case of search and seizure to bring in more transparency in an investigation, according to the Standard Operating Procedure for Audio-Visual Recording of a Scene of Crime.

Police personnel might encounter some teething problems here.

"These new provisions will need a quality forensic team. If that does not happen, the forensic investigation might be hampered. In the case of videography for search and warrant cases, proper videography must be ensured. A fully functional mobile phone will be needed as the scene needs to be recorded. Also, the video evidence needs to be uploaded in time," he added.

Another provision of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) is that it enables e-FIR, whereby people can file an FIR through electronic means. It has to be signed by the complainant within three days.

"An e-FIR might lead to an increase in the number of complaints filed. While such a step is welcome, as more and more people will come up with complaints, false FIRs might also increase. We will try to ensure that doesn't happen," the senior police officer said.

NOT EASY TO LEARN: JUDICIAL ASPIRANTS FRET OVER LAWS

Lawyers and police personnel can consult the Bare Acts and the capsules provided by the government, but the aspirants of judicial exams, such as Provincial Civil Services for Judicial Examination, have to cram up the three new criminal laws now.

That's after these aspirants, preparing to be judges, had already learnt each word of the IPC, CrPC and the Evidence Act. Now, they will have to learn the BNS, BNSS and the BSAA. This will not be an easy task. It will take weeks and even months for the aspirants.

"It brings added work for us. Preparing for these exams involves a lot of learning and memorising sections and, with the introduction of altogether new laws, it requires us to re-map all the sections in our minds again from the beginning. Further, since we have already prepared notes for these subjects, we will have to prepare notes all over again," said Prasoon Tripathi, a judiciary exam aspirant from Varanasi.

The change in nuances of the new laws and even in the Sections can lead to adding to the time of preparation for these aspirants.

"Remembering all the Sections of entire subjects is not humanly possible. So, we use mind-mapping by dividing them into parts. This makes it easy for us to recall during exams. However, these new laws have changed the entire sequence of the Sections, so all those tricks and logic will have to be redrawn," said Prasoon.

"As far as time is concerned, it takes us around 15–20 days per subject to build logic, and this is followed by fixed revision (at least twice a week)", he said.

The learning of new laws can also create confusion for aspirants as they might get confused between different Sections and clauses in the new and the old laws.

"Now not just do we have to forget what we have previously memorised but also remember all the new sections. This will create a lot of confusion when we give mocks. It has made us prone to making more errors and will require more practice and revision," added Tripathi.

CHANGE IS THE BEAUTY OF LEGAL PROFESSION: LAW STUDENT

Those in law schools have also so far studied the IPC, CrPC and the Evidence Act as a part of their criminal law coursework. Now, they will have to understand and study the new laws.

"It will be an issue in the universities which do not allow an open-book examination. Students will have to undergo a study of the entire criminal all again and again," said Advika Palakshi Sinha, a fourth year student at Amity Law School, Lucknow.

But the changing laws might not be as difficult to adapt to. As laws have changed earlier as well, lawyers and law students have to be ready to adapt to such changes, Sinha said."But I think that's the thrill and beauty of this field, it changes at every step."

Lawyers, police officials, judiciary aspirants and law school students are all tackling the big change in their lives. They will take some time to adapt to the new Sections and provisions of the three criminal laws.There are challenges that they might face before they smoothly adapt to the new laws. The criminal laws have incorporated people-friendly measures like e-FIR, and it is for the stakeholders, including the citizens, to adapt to the change, and strengthen the legal system.

2024-07-03T10:05:22Z dg43tfdfdgfd