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CPR Land Rights Initiative invites you to a talk on:
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita & Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam: Old Whines in New Bottles?
Tuesday, 23rd July 2024, 4:00 – 5:30 PM IST
Speaker:
Mr Shri Singh, Advocate and Head of Chambers, Chambers of Shri Singh
Moderator:
Dr Namita Wahi, Senior Fellow, CPR & Director, Land Rights Initiative
This is the second in a series of talks on “Legal History” as part of the Land Rights Initiative Speaker Series
This event will be held in a hybrid mode at the CPR Conference Room and online over Zoom. Please register below to attend either in-person or via Zoom.
About the talk:
In 1834, the first Law Commission, chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay, drafted the Indian Penal Code (“IPC”), the Criminal Procedure Code (“CrPC”) and the Indian Evidence Act (“Evidence Act”). The IPC came into force in 1860, the Evidence Act in 1872, and the CrPC in 1882. All three codes were amended many times during colonial rule and in post-colonial India. The CrPC, 1882 was repealed and replaced in 1973, but the IPC and the Evidence Act continued broadly in their original form for the past 150 years. In December, 2023, Parliament repealed and replaced all three laws with three new codes: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (“BNS”), the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (“BNSS”), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (“BSA”). Earlier this month, on 1st July, these laws came into force. Speaking on that day, Home Minister Amit Shah stated that these laws have erased India’s colonial legacy, and that through these laws, the criminal justice system will become genuinely swadeshi (indigenous). He characterised these historic new laws as replacing dand (punishment) with nyay (justice), delayed trials with speedy justice, and changing the focus from the police to the victims of criminal offences. Even as Indians struggle to understand these momentous changes to our criminal justice system, legal practitioners question how “new” are these criminal laws, and whether these laws can operate beyond the jurisprudential shadow of a hundred and fifty years of the old codes? Mr. Shri Singh will critically reflect on the changes brought about by the BNS, BNSS, and BSA in light of his work experience within the criminal justice system, trial and appellate courts. In particular, he will analyse whether these new Codes reflect lessons learnt from 1974, when the earlier CrPC, 1973 came into effect, or whether we are condemned to replay the fifteen years of ceaseless litigation that took place when CrPC, 1973 came into effect?
About the speaker:
Mr. Shri Singh has been a practising criminal lawyer for the past twenty years and is the founding head of his chambers in Delhi. His practice focuses on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering trials and related advisory work. Mr. Singh regularly appears before the Supreme Court, High Courts, Special Courts and tribunals in criminal trials and appellate matters. He represents and advises clients from Germany, Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia, the UAE, Singapore, Turkey and France in disputes involving issues of anti-corruption, money laundering, extradition, the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1977, and the UK Proceeds of Crime Act, 2002. Mr. Singh has worked on a number of leading criminal trials including aspects of the Antrix-Devas trial, the Delhi Excise/Liquor matters, the Religare- Fortis trials, the 2G Telecom trial, the Delhi Commonwealth Games trials, the Coal Allocation trials, the Nirav Modi-Firestar trials, the Satyam trial, the IFFCO/IPL Fertilizer trial and the IL&FS trials. Mr. Singh has led the defence of several death penalty convicts before the Supreme Court. Mr. Singh graduated with B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degrees from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore in 2004. He completed his LL.M. from MIDS, Geneva in 2021.
