At least three members of the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs have protested against the short notice at which the panel is meeting to begin deliberations on three bills — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Sakhshya Bill, 2023 that seek to overhaul the Indian criminal justice system by replacing Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
TMC’s Derek O’ Brien & Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, along with Congress leader Digvijay Singh have written the letter. The committee as per the original schedule was to meet on August 24 to adopt a draft report on “Prison-Condition Infrastructure and Reforms” a subject on which it has long been deliberating on.
A fresh notice was issued to the members on August 18 at night, that on August 24, 25 and 26, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla will brief the members on the various aspects of the three bills.
In his letter, Mr. O’ Brien said, that since the Monsoon session of Parliament recently ended the members both from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have made multiple commitments in their constituencies. “This is too short a notice (a few days only) for discussion of a Bill with implications of this magnitude. Please revise the dates and schedule it in the month of September, considering that many members of the committee are present for these meetings,” he wrote.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, another member pointed out that the bills were referred to the panel only on August 18. “On the same day, as the bill was referred to the committee, we receive notices that it has been listed for deliberations. This is very surprising, considering, the committee was immune to our requests to debate the ongoing violence in Manipur. But now, the same committee is in a tearing hurry,” a member said.
On July 6, Congress and TMC members had walked out of the meeting in protest for ignoring their pleas to discuss Manipur violence.
