PIL in Kerala High Court against Hindi names for new Criminal Laws

New Delhi: A lawyer has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition before the Kerala High Court seeking directions to the Central government to give English names to the three new criminal laws which are set to come into effect from July 1, 2024.

These new laws are the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, (to replace IPC) the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (to replace CrPC) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (to replace the Indian Evidence Act).
 

The petitioner-lawyer PV Jeevesh stated that the nomenclature of the new laws will create confusion and difficulty for lawyers in South India and other parts of the country where Hindi is not spoken as the first language.

He has also claimed that naming the three Acts in Hindi and Sanskrit is also against the mandate under Article 348 (Language to be used in the Supreme Court and in the High Courts and for Acts, Bills, etc.) of the Constitution.

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In August last year, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla addressed the objections raised by some Opposition MPs, including DMK’s NR Elango, Dayanidhi Maran and Congress’s Digvijaya Singh, against the Hindi titles of the bills. The MPs referred to Article 348 of the Constitution that mandates the use of English for names of all the laws.

Bhalla, justified the use of Hindi or Sanskrit names for the bills, emphasising that there is no violation of any constitutional provision since the bills and their authoritative texts are written in English.

He told the members of the panel that as Article 348 provided for the use of English language in the authoritative texts of all Bills, Acts and Ordinances, there was no breach if the bills were written in English. The Union home secretary, the people in the know of the matter said, conveyed the Centre’s avowal to keep the Hindi names.

Notably, the three new criminal laws that were passed by Parliament in 2023 will come into effect from July 1, 2024, according to a notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

However, Section 106(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which provides for punishment of “0-10 years” in “hit and run” cases, has been put on hold. Earlier this year, transporters and drivers across the country struck work to protest the particular provision.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam that will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860; Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898; and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, respectively, received President Droupadi Murmu’s assent on December 25, 2023.

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