Chennai senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday alleged that the Center bypassed the Law Commission in enacting the three new penal laws that came into force from July 1.
The Law Commission, comprising retired judges, legal experts, professors and permanent legal staff, would normally hold consultations with members of the bar council and bar associations and prepare a draft to be tabled in Parliament, he said.
But the Law Commission was bypassed and five or six "part-time workers" were appointed to a panel, he said of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, which replace the Indian Penal Code of the British era, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.
"The laws were neither referred to the Law Commission nor consulted. This is wrong," Chidambaram said while speaking at a protest organized here by the DMK's advocacy wing against the new laws.
"All over the world, the death penalty has been abolished. But here solitary confinement was included as a punishment, which is an unusual and cruel punishment according to the Constitution," he said. Such a punishment is not meted out anywhere in the world, the former Union Minister added.
"Similarly, life imprisonment and life imprisonment to the rest of life have been included. What is the difference?" he asked.
Furthermore, Chidambram said that he has been insisting on a debate on the new laws for several months, but the government has denied it because he was not ready for it.
He reiterated that 90 to 99 percent of the new laws were copy-paste jobs. Instead, the government could have introduced some amendments.
"I didn't say there shouldn't be reforms...they should have brought in an amendment. They just changed the section numbers. Lawyers, judges and police should re-read now," he said.
For example, even a child or a newly recruited police officer would know that Section 302 refers to murder, but now this number has changed, adding to the confusion, he said.
The Law Commission, comprising retired judges, legal experts, professors and permanent legal staff, would normally hold consultations with members of the bar council and bar associations and prepare a draft to be tabled in Parliament, he said.
But the Law Commission was bypassed and five or six "part-time workers" were appointed to a panel, he said of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, which replace the Indian Penal Code of the British era, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.
"The laws were neither referred to the Law Commission nor consulted. This is wrong," Chidambaram said while speaking at a protest organized here by the DMK's advocacy wing against the new laws.
"All over the world, the death penalty has been abolished. But here solitary confinement was included as a punishment, which is an unusual and cruel punishment according to the Constitution," he said. Such a punishment is not meted out anywhere in the world, the former Union Minister added.
"Similarly, life imprisonment and life imprisonment to the rest of life have been included. What is the difference?" he asked.
Furthermore, Chidambram said that he has been insisting on a debate on the new laws for several months, but the government has denied it because he was not ready for it.
He reiterated that 90 to 99 percent of the new laws were copy-paste jobs. Instead, the government could have introduced some amendments.
"I didn't say there shouldn't be reforms...they should have brought in an amendment. They just changed the section numbers. Lawyers, judges and police should re-read now," he said.
For example, even a child or a newly recruited police officer would know that Section 302 refers to murder, but now this number has changed, adding to the confusion, he said.
