Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday called for a balance between justice and all forms of power for the creation of a just society. He said India has made efforts to redraft or create new laws for various sectors according to contemporary needs in the last nine years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi in the last 9 years, the Indian government has made changes to many laws, such as the Arbitration Law, Mediation Law, and the Jan Vishwas Bill, which are helping reduce the burden on the judiciary,” Shah said, addressing the valedictory session of the International Lawyers Conference 2023 organized by the Bar Council of India at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
The minister said it is crucial for any government, parliament, or law-making agency to understand that a law is not final in its form and it should be amended based on the issues that arise with time and its implementation.
“The purpose of making laws is to establish an efficient system, and not to establish the supremacy of those who make the laws,” he added.
Shah claimed that the purpose of the three proposed criminal laws brought by the Modi government was not to impose penalties but to provide justice to every citizen. The three bills, which were introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 11, will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Act, 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively.
"India's criminal justice system was imprinted with colonial law. All three new bills do not have colonial imprint but have the flavour of Indian soil. The central point of these three proposed laws is to protect the constitutional and human rights of citizens as well as their personal rights," he said.
The minister further noted that instead of the 511 sections in the Indian Penal Code, there will be 356 sections in the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, in place of the 487 sections in the CrPC, there will be 533 sections in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and instead of the 167 sections in the Indian Evidence Act, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam with 170 sections has been introduced.
Shah remarked that the purpose of the old laws was to strengthen the British rule and to give strength to the system to run the government well.
“Its purpose was to punish, not to do justice. The purpose of three new criminal laws brought by the Modi government is not to punish but to provide justice to every citizen,” he claimed.
Shah informed that three more initiatives have been taken by the government to create a law-friendly ecosystem. The first is e-courts, the second inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS)and the third is adding new technology to these three proposed laws, he said.
"With the introduction of three laws and three systems, we will be able to remove the delays in our criminal justice system in less than a decade," he added.
