MP Mahesh Jethmalani criticizes opposition’s demand for re-examination of new criminal laws

New Delhi [India], July 1 (ANI): Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani criticized the Opposition’s demand for re-examination of the new criminal laws which came into effect on Monday, July 1.

“Why should it be re-examined? It had been passed by the supreme law-making body of this country. It has got Presidential assent and a notification has been issued. Today, it comes into force. So, the entire procedure by which laws are passed has been complied with in letter and in spirit. So, why should there be any re-look at it?” Jethmalani asked.

The Rajya Sabha MP alleged that the opposition is “hell-bent” on opposing everything good or bad this government brings.

“I do not know what the objection is, this is a colonial law enacted in colonial times. What are they talking about? They have not even read the laws, I am telling you. This is blind opposition. It is completely blind, perverse Opposition. This is not a constructive Opposition,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Congress MP Manish Tewari called for a “re-examination” of the new criminal laws referring to them as “draconian” and added that there are “enough reasons to pause” the implementation.

“The criminal laws which have come into force are pernicious in nature and they will be draconian in their implementation. They will lay the foundations of a police state in this country, they will provide very wide latitude to the police across the length and breadth of the country because of the very ambiguous nature in which certain provisions have been crafted – provisions with regard to bail are absolutely perverse in their nature,” Tewari told ANI on Monday.

The Congress MP also questioned the new law defining terrorism as he reiterated the demand for a detailed examination by a joint parliamentary committee.

“Was there a need to bring the definition of terrorism into general criminal law when there is already a special law on it? The manner in which sedition has been very loosely defined notwithstanding that it was stayed by the Supreme Court of India, the manner in which handcuffs have been brought back surreptitiously in the teeth of two judgements of Supreme Court going all the way back to 1973,” Tewari said.

“So, there are problems galore with these laws. That’s why I have been saying this from the day they were passed by the Parliament by suspending 146 MPs, that these laws are perverse, they need to be re-examined by the House and only after their re-examination and detailed examination by a JPC, should they be implemented. There is enough reason to pause the implementation of these laws,” he added.

Tewari gave an adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on Monday seeking a discussion on the three new criminal laws that came into force from July 1. He claimed in the notice that lawyers, jurists and constitutional experts have repeatedly expressed serious concerns in the public space with regard to the implementation of these laws which have been passed in Parliament without the collective application of the wisdom of Parliament.

Tewari urged that the implementation of these laws be referred to a joint parliamentary committee. “A joint parliamentary committee should reexamine them threadbare, only then a final view on these criminal acts should be taken,” he said.

The three new criminal laws, namely Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860; the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973; and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, which came into effect from Monday.

The three new laws received Parliament’s nod on December 21, 2023. President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent on December 25, 2023, and it was published in the official gazette on the same day.