Legislative Comment Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, 2023: A Critique

Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, 2023 (BNS2, 2023) is one of the three newly passed Criminal Law Bills that have duly received the President's assent on 25.12.2023 and is supposed to substitute the Indian Penal Code, 1860 in the coming time. Though the new regime of laws purports to bring a paradigm shift in the realm of criminal laws by putting an end to the colonial code contemporarily in force, the BNS2, 2023 suffers from substantial hiatuses, which affords public attention and cannot be overlooked at the outset. Furthermore, it seems from the scheme of the newly enacted law that it inclines more towards the government and provides substantial provisions for stultifying the critiques from voicing their arguments against the government. This Legislative Comment is intended to provide positive criticism, comprising two limbs of submissions taking two crucial aspects within its fold. The first submission, trailing the introduction, highlights the negative impact of deleting the equivalent of Section 377 of the IPC, 1860, from the BNS2, 2023. Meanwhile, the second submission highlights how the legislators have seemingly strengthened Section 124A of IPC, 1860, that is, the sedition law in force in India more in favour of the government. Towards the conclusion, the authors propose changes to the BNS2, 2023, filling up these shortcomings spotted and discussed in the two-fold submission.