The government has introduced three new bills including the ‘Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’ (BNS) Bill to replace colonial-era criminal laws including the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The bill introduces new laws, amends the existing ones, and define punishment for crimes including terrorism, mob lynching and rape of minors. The Bill also repeals the offence of sedition and unnatural sex among other things.
One of the highlights of the BNS Bill, 2023 is that it seeks to repeal the offence of sedition under the IPC and provides capital sentence as the maximum punishment for crimes such as mob lynching and rape of minors.
Here are the top five major changes brought by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill:
‘Unnatural Sex’
The central government, while proposing to replace the IPC, has done away with ‘unnatural sex’ as an offence which under the existing code attracts a punishment of a 10-year jail for sodomy and bestiality.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, removes provisions from Section 377, which states that, “whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal commits unnatural offence.”
However, the two sections of the IPC have been retained in Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita- namely Section 100, which provides for the right to self-defence when subjected to unnatural sex and Section 367(4) which states the punishment for kidnapping someone to satiate ‘unnatural lust’.
Repealing Sedition Law
The government also seeks to repeal the offence of sedition which was under section 124-A of the IPC and prescribed life imprisonment or imprisonment up to three years.
The British-era draconian law was instituted by Thomas Macaulay in 1837, during the reign of the East India Company. It was added to the Indian Penal Code as Section 124A in 1860.
However, the government has added a new provision in the BNS Bill which pertains to offences against the State talks about acts endangering sovereignty unity and integrity of India.
“Whoever, purposely or knowingly, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or by electronic communication or by use of financial mean, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite, secession or armed rebellion or subversive activities, or encourages feelings of separatist activities or endangers sovereignty or unity and integrity of India; or indulges in or commits any such act shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine,” section 150 of the Bill states.
Mob Lynching
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill has incorporated a specific provision for mob lynching and stipulated punishment ranging from seven years in jail to the death penalty for those convicted of the crime.
The offence is punishable under the same provision as murder- Section 101. The Section 101(b) states, “When a group of five or more persons acting in concert commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other ground each member of such group shall be punished with death or with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
False promise of marriage
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 seeks to introduce a clause on using “deceitful means” to promise to marry a woman. Such a section doesn’t exist in the IPC of 1860. According to the proposed legislation, “deceitful means” will include the false promise of employment, promotion, inducement or marrying after suppressing one’s identity.
Clause 69 of the proposed bill says, “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.”
Rape of Minors
The BNS bill has also proposed that an offence of gang rape against minor can fetch capital punishment for all those involved in the crime.
Under the proposed law, the gang rape of a girl under 18 years of age is punishable with imprisonment for life, which means imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and with a fine, “or with death”.
In IPC, the provisions relating to the gang rape of minors are classified under two categories – where a survivor is under 12 years of age and where she is less than 16 years old. For an act of gang-raping a girl under 12, the maximum punishment under IPC is death sentence, but for the crime against a girl between 12 and 16 the maximum punishment is life imprisonment.
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