New criminal laws, an attempt at theocratic state: Teesta Setalvad

Teesta Setalvad criticizes new criminal laws for granting more power to police and undermining local magistracy, alleging lack of transparency.

Civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad has said that the three new criminal laws passed by Parliament in December 2023 had nothing ‘decolonising’ about it as they granted more powers to the police and took away the crucial powers from the local magistracy.

“From the names itself — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam — you are showing the country that we are moving slowly to a theocratic state. That is the opinion of many scholars and I tend to agree with them,” she said at a lecture on “Our Federal Republic: Challenges and Responsibilities” organised by the Secular India Movement at the Kerala High Court Advocates’ Chamber building here on Monday.

She said there was no ‘decolonisation’ being done by bringing in the new laws as the entire Code of Criminal Procedure was amended in 1973. “But many sections were retained, which were problematic from the point of view of human rights. Those sections had been made more draconian,” she said.

She alleged that there was no transparency in the working of the five-member expert committee that drafted the laws. There is no information on how many sittings held by the committee. There is no information available about how it responded to at least 7,000 different suggestions from groups of lawyers that came from across the country. It was done in a secretive manner and not in a constitutional manner, she said.

She said the new laws were passed when 146 MPs were suspended in an undemocratic manner from Parliament. The Bills were passed in their absence, which itself could be grounds for reviewing it, she said.