July 2024 was not like any other month for India. That’s when the Indian Penal Code of 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act 1872 were replaced with 3 new laws: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023. How are India’s citizens, businesses and lawyers tangibly affected by this kind of overhaul of criminal laws? And is the impact positive or negative? Would the new reforms mitigate delays in the justice system that were said to be notorious? Would this software upgrade protect people’s rights better or open the door to new risks? Will India become a slightly better or a slightly worse place to do business with the advent of these new laws?
In this episode of CAM Radio – Clear Cut, our Managing Partner Cyril Shroff explores these sweeping reforms, whether this indigenizes and decolonizes India’s criminal jurisprudence thinking, whether ideas, like organized crime, t*rrorist acts and economic offenses, have far-reaching implications, how sedition is being redefined in this new age, how some well-intentioned reforms may not always play out well in the long term and may be ahead of its time, whether the goal of justice is truly achieved, whether police stations, courts and the practicing bar would be tech-ready, what attorney-client privilege may look like in this digital era, how cross-border criminal investigations could play out if the rest of the world is not aligned with India’s system and more.
