Bengal forms panel to review if new laws need state-specific changes

Kolkata: Bengal govt has formed a seven-member committee to suggest, within three months, whether any state-specific changes were required in the newly enacted criminal laws that have replaced British-era ones from July 1.The committee is to be chaired by Ashim Kumar Roy, a former Calcutta High Court judge and Bengal Lokayukta. Govt has asked the committee to engage with domain experts and seek public opinion on the subject.From July 1, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (BSA) have replaced Indian Penal Code 1860, Criminal Procedure Code 1973 and Indian Evidence Act 1872, respectively.Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier urged PM Narendra Modi to "review" the new laws. Bengal govt is also set to introduce a resolution in the state assembly opposing the new laws during the upcoming monsoon session. In the notification issued by state home secretary Nandini Chakraborty on Tuesday, the state said that apart from Roy, the committee members would include state law minister Moloy Ghatak; finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya; state advocate-general Kishore Datta; the state's senior standing counsel in Supreme Court, Sanjay Basu; DGP Rajeev Kumar; and Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal. TURNS HERE "The committee shall have the power to engage academic experts, senior advocates, research assistants, and other legal experts" to seek their views, the notification reads, adding, "The committee shall have the power to carry public consultations and seek opinion from the public."Bengal govt argued that Article 246(2) of the Constitution made it clear that the state legislature had the power to make laws on subjects in the concurrent list. The state says that the concurrent list under the Constitution's seventh schedule cites criminal laws and criminal procedures (thus including IPC and CrPC). The state also says that the Constitution only explicitly debars the state from intervening in laws relating to the armed forces. "The state govt had written to the govt of India to defer the operation of the said criminal laws," the notification mentions, adding, "The issues raised by state govt were not considered by the central govt."The governing Trinamool Congress had opposed the bills in Parliament. Before the bills were passed, during the parliamentary home affairs committee's deliberations, the party's Rajya Sabha leader, Derek O'Brien, had given a 90-page dissent note to the committee. Banerjee had written to Modi twice on this — the last on June 21, a week ahead of the rollout, urging the Centre to re-examine the bills, terming the hasty implementation unethical and impractical. She even questioned the manner in which the bills were passed in Parliament, with 147 opposition MPs suspended, and urged the new govt at the Centre to pause the bills and factor in the concerns.