The central government announced that the three criminal laws replacing the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Evidence Act of 1872 will come into effect from July 1, 2024.
The Union Home Ministry issued a gazette notification to this effect on Friday, February 23, 2023.
Sub Section (2) of Section 106 of the BNS, which concerns ‘causing death of a person by rash and negligent driving of a vehicle’, has been put on hold for now.
The Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) bills will replace the Indian Penal Code of 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) of 1973, and Indian Evidence Act, of 1872.
The three bills were first introduced in Lok Sabha on August 11, 2023, as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill before being referred to a parliamentary committee headed by Brij Lal for further examination.
They were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 20 before being passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 21. The three new criminal code bills became laws after getting assent from President Draupadi Murmu on December 25.