Bulldozing 3 existing laws: Chidambaram slams govt over new criminal bills

With the three new criminal laws coming into effect, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday slammed the government and said it was another case of "bulldozing" existing laws and replacing them with three new bills without adequate discussion and debate.

The former home minister said that in the long term, further changes must be made to the three laws to bring them in conformity with the Constitution and the modern principles of criminal jurisprudence.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

In a post on X, Chidambaram said, "90-99 per cent of the so-called new laws are a cut, copy and paste job. A task that could have been completed with a few amendments to the existing three laws has been turned into a wasteful exercise."

"Yes, there are a few improvements in the new laws and we have welcomed them. Th