The Evening Wrap: Centre introduces 3 Bills to replace criminal laws, sedition law to go

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 11 introduced three Bills in the Lok Sabha to repeal the British-era Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Bharatiya Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 prescribes capital punishment as the maximum sentence for mob lynching and suggests ten years imprisonment for sexual intercourse with women on the false promise of marriage. The Bill however, states that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape.” Shah also said the section on sedition has been repealed. The Bill proposes 313 amendments that will bring revolutionary changes to the criminal justice system, Shah said. He introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023 that will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Act, 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively and said the changes were done to provide speedy justice and create a legal system that keeps contemporary needs and aspirations of the people. He requested that the bills be sent to the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs. In cases of sexual violence against women, the video-recording of statement of survivors has been made compulsory, Shah said. He said police has to inform about the status of a complaint in 90 days, if a case punishable by seven years or more is to be withdrawn, then before doing so, the police must consult the victim. He also said community service is being introduced for specific crimes. He said the government of the day will have to decide prosecution sanction against police officers and civil servants within 120-days, else it will be deemed to be permitted. He said videography of search and seizure is being made compulsory and a charge sheet won’t be accepted without it. He said a police officer will be designated in each police station who will certify to the relatives of an accused that she/he is in police custody. ECI publishes final report on Assam delimitation; names of one Lok Sabha, 19 Assembly seats revised The Election Commission of India (ECI) on August 11 published its final report on the delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Assam, keeping their total numbers unchanged at 126 and 14, respectively. In its final order, the poll panel has revised the nomenclature of one parliamentary and 19 Assembly constituencies. According to a statement by the poll body, 19 Assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). One Lok Sabha and nine assembly constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs). It said more than 1,200 representations were considered before finalising the report. It also said that 45% of the suggestions and objections received by the panel were addressed in the final order. All Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the State were delimited (redrawn) based on the 2001 Census. Referring to certain salient features of the final report, the ECI said the lowest administrative unit has been taken as ‘village’ in rural areas and ‘ward’ in urban areas. SC Assembly seats have increased from eight to nine, and ST assembly seats have gone up from 16 to 19. There has also been an increase of assembly constituencies in Bodoland districts from 11 to 15. Punjab and Haryana HC stays August 12 Wrestling Federation of India polls The Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 11 stayed the much-anticipated Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections slated for August 12 till further orders following a petition filed by the Haryana Wrestling Association (HWA). The order came following a petition filed by the HWA, challenging the move to allow Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the WFI polls. Advocate Ravinder Malik, representing Haryana Wrestling Association which is headed by Member of Parliament Deepinder Hooda, said the HWA is a registered society in the State and is affiliated to the WFI. As per rules and the constitution of the WFI, any registered affiliated body can send two representatives to cast their votes for the WFI polls, he stated. The HWA advocate said that one more body, Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association has claimed that it was affiliated with the WFI as well as Haryana Olympic Association. Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association further claimed that the HWA has no business to participate in the election process because it is not affiliated with the WFI. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast The worms that came alive after 46,000 years It sounds like a science fiction movie, but it’s all real: scientists managed to revive a pair of roundworms that had been buried deep in the Siberian permafrost 46,000 years ago. The roundworms, called nematodes, were thawed in a lab and came alive again, reproduced several generations, and then died. These nematodes first existed when the woolly mammoths did, managed to survive in the harshest of frozen conditions, and then, from a state of suspended animation, that scientists call cryptobiosis, began life again, crawling about in a lab. A paper on this was published recently in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics. Does this mean, that technically, life can be paused for thousands of years and then restarted? That organisms can exist in a state between life and death indefinitely? If the roundworms came alive again, can other microorganisms and pathogens do that too, especially since the Siberian permafrost is melting, and can these microbes cause new diseases? Sexual harassment case | Enough evidence to put Brij Bhushan on trial, Delhi police tell court The Delhi police on August 11 told the Rouse Avenue court that there was enough evidence against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for him to be put on trial in the sexual harassment case filed by women wrestlers. Public prosecutor Atul Srivastava submitted before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Harjeet Singh Jaspal that charges must be framed against Singh and co-accused Vinod Tomar for the offences mentioned in the charge sheet. The Delhi police had filed a 1,000-page charge sheet on June 15 against the accused for offences under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), and 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code. Srivastava also said the submissions made by advocate Rajiv Mohan, the counsel for the accused, were not meritorious. He argued that the court will have jurisdiction to put Singh on trial as the offences in question were partly committed in Delhi. He further said since the matter at hand falls under Section 354 of the IPC, with recourse to Section 468(3) of the CrPC, there can be no questions on the bar of limitation as submitted by the defence counsel. The court will hear the matter further on August 19, when the advocate for the complainants is likely to make arguments on the point of charge. Gujarat High Court refuses to stay defamation proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh in Prime Minister’s degree case In a setback to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleague and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, the Gujarat High Court refused to stay proceedings in a criminal defamation complaint filed by Gujarat University in the case pertaining to PM Narendra Modi’s academic degree. Justice Samir Dave of the High Court held that there cannot be any relief till their revision plea, challenging Metropolitan Court’s order issuing summons to them, in a session court is not disposed of. While refusing to grant a stay on the defamation proceedings underway at a metropolitan court against them, Justice Dave noted that both of them had earlier given an assurance to the sessions court that they will remain present before the metropolitan court to record their statement. A metropolitan court earlier summoned Kejriwal and Singh on August 11 in the defamation case filed by the Gujarat University over their “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements and remarks in connection with PM Modi’s degree. Subsequently, they filed a revision application in the sessions court challenging the metropolitan court’s summons to them. However, the sessions court rejected their plea, which prompted them to approach High Court seeking an interim relief by staying the proceedings. 53 people have died from the Maui wildfires, Governor says, and historic Lahaina has burned down A search of the wildfire devastation on the Hawaiian island of Maui on August 10 revealed a wasteland of obliterated neighbourhoods and landmarks charred beyond recognition, as the death toll rose to at least 53 and survivors told harrowing tales of narrow escapes with only the clothes on their backs. A flyover of historic Lahaina showed entire neighbourhoods that had been a vibrant vision of colour and island life reduced to gray ash. Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Boats in the harbour were scorched, and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side. “Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” Hawaii Governor Josh Green said. More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that were still burning, he said. Already the State’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami killed 61 people on the Big Island, the death toll will likely rise further as search and rescue operations continue, Mr. Green added. The official death toll of 53 as of August 10 makes this the deadliest U.S. wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise. The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been inaccessible due to the three ongoing fires, including the one in Lahaina that was 80% contained on August 10, according to a Maui County news release. Dozens of people have been injured, some critically. President Joe Biden declared a major disaster on Maui. Traveling in Utah on August 10, he pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.” In Brief: Parliament adjourns sine die; Raghav Chadha suspended; Sanjay Singh’s suspension extended The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die on August 11, concluding the Monsoon Session. On the last day of the Monsoon session, Rajya Sabha suspended AAP MP Raghav Chadha and extended the suspension of Sanjay Singh, after Leader of the House Piyush Goyal moved motions for the same. The Opposition, once again, did not attend the proceedings of the House in the second half of the day. Chadha was suspended for “gross violation of rule, misconduct, defiant attitude and contemptuous conduct”, pending a report by the privileges committee. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to visit five poll-bound States Sounding the poll bugle, Congress president Malikarjun Kharge is set to start a whirlwind tour of five poll-bound States, beginning with Chhattisgarh, on August 13. The meeting in Chhattisgarh will be organised at Janjgir-Champa, a district dominated by the Scheduled Castes. He will also address various meetings in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram, party sources said. The Congress is planning to replicate the Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh model of restricting the election to local issues and promises would be centred around the problems of the State. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 11 August 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Parliament Monsoon Session | Sedition law to go; Centre introduces 3 new Bills to replace criminal laws [Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 11 introduced three Bills in the Lok Sabha to repeal the British-era Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure.]( The Bharatiya Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 prescribes capital punishment as the maximum sentence for mob lynching and suggests ten years imprisonment for sexual intercourse with women on the false promise of marriage. The Bill however, states that “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under eighteen years of age, is not rape.” Shah also said the section on sedition has been repealed. The Bill proposes 313 amendments that will bring revolutionary changes to the criminal justice system, Shah said. He introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Bill, 2023; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya (BS) Bill, 2023 that will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Act, 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively and said the changes were done to provide speedy justice and create a legal system that keeps contemporary needs and aspirations of the people. He requested that the bills be sent to the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs. In cases of sexual violence against women, the video-recording of statement of survivors has been made compulsory, Shah said. He said police has to inform about the status of a complaint in 90 days, if a case punishable by seven years or more is to be withdrawn, then before doing so, the police must consult the victim. He also said community service is being introduced for specific crimes. He said the government of the day will have to decide prosecution sanction against police officers and civil servants within 120-days, else it will be deemed to be permitted. He said videography of search and seizure is being made compulsory and a charge sheet won’t be accepted without it. He said a police officer will be designated in each police station who will certify to the relatives of an accused that she/he is in police custody. ECI publishes final report on Assam delimitation; names of one Lok Sabha, 19 Assembly seats revised The [Election Commission of India (ECI) on August 11 published its final report on the delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Assam]( keeping their total numbers unchanged at 126 and 14, respectively. In its final order, the poll panel has revised the nomenclature of one parliamentary and 19 Assembly constituencies. According to a statement by the poll body, 19 Assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). One Lok Sabha and nine assembly constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs). It said more than 1,200 representations were considered before finalising the report. It also said that 45% of the suggestions and objections received by the panel were addressed in the final order. All Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the State were delimited (redrawn) based on the 2001 Census. Referring to certain salient features of the final report, the ECI said the lowest administrative unit has been taken as ‘village’ in rural areas and ‘ward’ in urban areas. SC Assembly seats have increased from eight to nine, and ST assembly seats have gone up from 16 to 19. There has also been an increase of assembly constituencies in Bodoland districts from 11 to 15. Punjab and Haryana HC stays August 12 Wrestling Federation of India polls The [Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 11 stayed the much-anticipated Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections slated for August 12]( till further orders following a petition filed by the Haryana Wrestling Association (HWA). The order came following a petition filed by the HWA, challenging the move to allow Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the WFI polls. Advocate Ravinder Malik, representing Haryana Wrestling Association which is headed by Member of Parliament Deepinder Hooda, said the HWA is a registered society in the State and is affiliated to the WFI. As per rules and the constitution of the WFI, any registered affiliated body can send two representatives to cast their votes for the WFI polls, he stated. The HWA advocate said that one more body, Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association has claimed that it was affiliated with the WFI as well as Haryana Olympic Association. Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association further claimed that the HWA has no business to participate in the election process because it is not affiliated with the WFI. Listen to today’s episode of the In Focus podcast The worms that came alive after 46,000 years It sounds like a science fiction movie, but it’s all real: [scientists managed to revive a pair of roundworms that had been buried deep in the Siberian permafrost 46,000 years ago](. The roundworms, called nematodes, were thawed in a lab and came alive again, reproduced several generations, and then died. These nematodes first existed when the woolly mammoths did, managed to survive in the harshest of frozen conditions, and then, from a state of suspended animation, that scientists call cryptobiosis, began life again, crawling about in a lab. A paper on this was published recently in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics. Does this mean, that technically, life can be paused for thousands of years and then restarted? That organisms can exist in a state between life and death indefinitely? If the roundworms came alive again, can other microorganisms and pathogens do that too, especially since the Siberian permafrost is melting, and can these microbes cause new diseases? Sexual harassment case | Enough evidence to put Brij Bhushan on trial, Delhi police tell court The Delhi police on August 11 told the Rouse Avenue court that [there was enough evidence against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh]( for him to be put on trial in the sexual harassment case filed by women wrestlers. Public prosecutor Atul Srivastava submitted before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Harjeet Singh Jaspal that charges must be framed against Singh and co-accused Vinod Tomar for the offences mentioned in the charge sheet. The Delhi police had filed a 1,000-page charge sheet on June 15 against the accused for offences under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), and 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code. Srivastava also said the submissions made by advocate Rajiv Mohan, the counsel for the accused, were not meritorious. He argued that the court will have jurisdiction to put Singh on trial as the offences in question were partly committed in Delhi. He further said since the matter at hand falls under Section 354 of the IPC, with recourse to Section 468(3) of the CrPC, there can be no questions on the bar of limitation as submitted by the defence counsel. The court will hear the matter further on August 19, when the advocate for the complainants is likely to make arguments on the point of charge. Gujarat High Court refuses to stay defamation proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh in Prime Minister’s degree case In a setback to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleague and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, the [Gujarat High Court refused to stay proceedings in a criminal defamation complaint]( filed by Gujarat University in the case pertaining to PM Narendra Modi’s academic degree. Justice Samir Dave of the High Court held that there cannot be any relief till their revision plea, challenging Metropolitan Court’s order issuing summons to them, in a session court is not disposed of. While refusing to grant a stay on the defamation proceedings underway at a metropolitan court against them, Justice Dave noted that both of them had earlier given an assurance to the sessions court that they will remain present before the metropolitan court to record their statement. A metropolitan court earlier summoned Kejriwal and Singh on August 11 in the defamation case filed by the Gujarat University over their “sarcastic” and “derogatory” statements and remarks in connection with PM Modi’s degree. Subsequently, they filed a revision application in the sessions court challenging the metropolitan court’s summons to them. However, the sessions court rejected their plea, which prompted them to approach High Court seeking an interim relief by staying the proceedings. 53 people have died from the Maui wildfires, Governor says, and historic Lahaina has burned down A search of the [wildfire devastation on the Hawaiian island of Maui]( on August 10 revealed a wasteland of obliterated neighbourhoods and landmarks charred beyond recognition, as the death toll rose to at least 53 and survivors told harrowing tales of narrow escapes with only the clothes on their backs. A flyover of historic Lahaina showed entire neighbourhoods that had been a vibrant vision of colour and island life reduced to gray ash. Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Boats in the harbour were scorched, and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side. “Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” Hawaii Governor Josh Green said. More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that were still burning, he said. Already the State’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami killed 61 people on the Big Island, the death toll will likely rise further as search and rescue operations continue, Mr. Green added. The official death toll of 53 as of August 10 makes this the deadliest U.S. wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise. The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been inaccessible due to the three ongoing fires, including the one in Lahaina that was 80% contained on August 10, according to a Maui County news release. Dozens of people have been injured, some critically. President Joe Biden declared a major disaster on Maui. Traveling in Utah on August 10, he pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.” In Brief: Parliament adjourns sine die; Raghav Chadha suspended; Sanjay Singh’s suspension extended [The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha adjourned sine die on August 11]( concluding the Monsoon Session. On the last day of the Monsoon session, Rajya Sabha suspended AAP MP Raghav Chadha and extended the suspension of Sanjay Singh, after Leader of the House Piyush Goyal moved motions for the same. The Opposition, once again, did not attend the proceedings of the House in the second half of the day. Chadha was suspended for “gross violation of rule, misconduct, defiant attitude and contemptuous conduct”, pending a report by the privileges committee. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to visit five poll-bound States Sounding the poll bugle, Congress president [Malikarjun Kharge is set to start a whirlwind tour of five poll-bound States]( beginning with Chhattisgarh, on August 13. The meeting in Chhattisgarh will be organised at Janjgir-Champa, a district dominated by the Scheduled Castes. He will also address various meetings in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram, party sources said. The Congress is planning to replicate the Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh model of restricting the election to local issues and promises would be centred around the problems of the State. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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