'Unconstitutional': Madras Bar Association On Hindi Names For Criminal Law Bills

Madras Bar Association called the move an attempt to impose Hindi and advocated for the English names to be retained for Criminal Law Bills.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu CM Stalin criticised Union government for attempting to replace criminal laws by introducing new bill in Parliament. 

Source : Facebook/@MadrasBarAssociation

The Madras Bar Association has deemed it unconstitutional for the Centre to replace the Evidence Act, Criminal Procedure Code (CPCr), and Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Hindi.  The association criticised the Centre's decision to replace the names with "Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita Bill," "Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Bill," and "Bharatiya Sakshya Bill,". In this regard, the group has also adopted a resolution.

According to IANS, Madras Bar Association called the move an attempt to impose Hindi and advocated for the English names to be retained. In a joint statement, President of the Madras Bar Association V.R. Kamalanathan and Secretary D. Sreenivasan said that Extraordinary General Body Meeting of the Madras Bar Association held on August 23 resolved unanimously to express the objection and anguish over the naming of bills in Hindi.

They said, "The move is against the provisions of the Constitution of India and it is further resolved that the suggestions/views of the said bills will be sent shortly to the Minister of Law, Government of India with a request to reconsider and restore the original names of the above-mentioned acts." 

Earlier, Tamil Nadu CM Stalin criticised Union government for attempting to replace criminal laws by introducing new bill in Parliament. 

Last week, three proposed bills to replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Evidence Act were forwarded to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs for assessment on Friday by Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.  The bills that were referred to the panel are — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill. The said bills, when passed, will replace the IPC, CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act respectively.

Within three months, he requested that the committee provide its report on the measures.