Supreme Court refuses to entertain PILs against New Criminal Laws

New Delhi. The Supreme Court refused to entertain two public interest litigation (PILs) petitions that challenged the validity of the three new criminal laws that recently replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act.

A Division Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan criticised the manner in which both petitions were drafted and suggested that the petitioners do better research if they wished to file their challenge again.

“This is a serious issue. What kind of petitions are both of these? … Please draft it well. This is a serious issue. We cannot enter the domain of Parliament … Please conduct thorough research on the issues you are raising. You are challenging the constitutional vires of the new laws,” Justice Kant remarked.

“We allow the petitions to be withdrawn with a liberty to file a comprehensive petition on the said issue,” the Court said.

The Court was hearing two petitions challenging the new criminal laws, namely the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS, which replaced the IPC), the Bharatiya Nagarik Surakhsa Sanhita (BNSS, which replaced the CrPC) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA, which replaced the earlier Evidence Act).

One of the two petitions was filed by two Delhi residents, Anjale Patel and Chhaya. The second petition was filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Vinod Kumar Boinapally.

On May 20, a Bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal refused to entertain another petition challenging the validity of the new criminal laws. At the time, the new criminal laws were yet to come into force.

“Laws are not in force. How can you file such pleas drafted in a casual manner?” the Court had asked petitioner, Vishal Tiwari, while declining the entertain his PIL, which was ultimately withdrawn.

A similar plea was dismissed back in February as well, by a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.