New Provisions for Police Officers in BNSS

Abstract

On July 1, 2024, three historic criminal laws—the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhinayam (BSA)—replaced three antiquated statutes from the British colonial era in India. The new laws aim to improve India's criminal justice system and offer a more effective framework for dealing with criminal activity. The main points of the BNS, which aims to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which was created a century ago, will be covered in this article. The BNS worsens the retributive system by introducing wide and imprecisely defined offenses, upholding crimes with roots in outmoded moral principles, and continuing the growth of state and police authority. It is argued that the main goal of the legislation's drafting appears to be to provide the impression that colonial legacies—that is, obsolete colonial laws—have been abandoned, all the while advancing a nationalist agenda meant to instill a sense of patriotism in the general populace.