On Monday, G Kishan Reddy, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs in his announcement hinted that the government is contemplating changes in the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Codes of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) the laws continuing from the British era.

Speaking in the Conference on Women Safety – “Let’s Talk – Strategies & Way Forward to Prevent Crime Against Women” organized by Anandi Empower Foundation, the Union Minister said that the Centre has written to Chief Justices, senior Advocates, police officers, NGOs, and the state governments.

“We all should come forward and work in the direction to ensure that there is no gender injustice. We have taken up many tasks on behalf of the Government of India. Now we shall also change IPC and CrPC which are of the British era. From time to time we have been amending the sections of these two but looking at the present scenario of the country, the government has decided to completely change the IPC and CrPC and for the same, we have written to Chief Justices, senior Advocates, police officers, NGOs, state governments. A committee has also been constituted for this. I appeal to all of you give suggestions regarding what changes should be made in the IPC and CrPC,” he said.

Last year, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Narendra Modi government had already abolished 1,458 old and archaic acts. Prasad said that this is done to ensure minimum legislation and maximum governance, adding that repealing old laws is an ongoing process.

The Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019, was passed on August 2 by the Rajya Sabha via a voice vote. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 29th. Moving the bill to the Upper House, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that after the BJP-led government came to power, it decided to get rid of obsolete and absolute laws. The committee listed 1824 old laws.

Additional legal Information from Lexpeeps to the viewers:

Many people from non-legal background must be wondering how the Acts came into force before the Constitution of India came are valid and continuing in India?

This is because Article 13(1) of The Constitution allows continuing the laws which came into force before The Constitution of India came into force and Article 372 of The Constitution gives it the validity.