Karnataka govt opposes new criminal laws, says Centre did not take suggestions
Bengaluru, Jul 1: The Karnataka government on Monday opposed the three new criminal laws, which came into force on July 1, saying the Centre did not take its suggestions into consideration.
The three laws Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replacing Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Evidence Act should have been implemented by the BJP government during its previous tenure itself and not now, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said in a press conference
The Minister recalled that in 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah wrote to CM Siddaramaiah asking him to review and give suggestions on these laws.
Based on the Chief Minister’s direction, an expert committee was formed. The panel submitted a report to Siddaramaiah, which was forwarded to Shah.
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“We gave a total of 23 suggestions but the central government did not take any of it seriously. No opinion of ours is included in it. Now, the new codes have been duly implemented,” the Minister said.
“These three laws have been promulgated ignoring public opinion and the suggestion of the legal luminaries. Thus, our government opposes these three laws."
According to Patil, the new penal codes have more disadvantages than advantages along with some confusing amendments.
He also charged that the Centre has no moral rights to implement the three laws now.
“The three laws have been changed and new laws have been implemented. Any government that makes a law has the right to enforce it during its tenure. However, it is an unethical and politically absurd move to implement after the end of the government's tenure,” Patil said.
“The decision made by the cabinet of the previous government is not right to be implemented now. They had the right to enforce it in their previous term itself."
Patil noted that the replacement of these laws with the original ones is equivalent to the amendment of the Constitution and hence all precaution should be taken during the enforcement of this law.
To a query, the Minister said the state government is empowered to amend laws. There is an opportunity to make amendments exercising the constitutional rights.
Explaining the scope for amendment, Patil said, “Fasting in protest against the government action is an offense, but suicide is not a crime in this law. This is unfortunate. It is an insult to the freedom struggle. In this regard, we will bring an amendment on fasting.”
The Karnataka government had suggested to the Centre to amend the law to prosecute those who show disrespect to the father of the nation, national emblem and tricolour but it did not agree. In this regard, the state government has contemplated an amendment, the minister noted.
The new law gives investigative agencies unilateral and discretionary powers to prosecute individuals for the organised crime.
Further, he pointed to a provision for three years imprisonment and fine for hurting the national integrity.
The Act will be amended for cyber crime, hacking, financial crime, nuclear weapons secrecy and sabotage through technology, he explained.
The minister pointed out that under the new Act, police custody is allowed for 90 days, which is a long period. Hence, the amendment has to be made to minimise the duration of police custody, he added.
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Huge turnout amidst SIR shadow caps ballistic battle for Bengal
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal assembly polls ended on Wednesday with what the election watchdog said was the state's highest-ever voter turnout of 92.84 per cent, leading to mouth-watering anticipation ahead of the announcement of results on Monday as both contenders sounded sanguine about their victory prospects.
Wednesday's second phase saw a 92.48 per cent turnout. The concluding phase covering 142 constituencies in south Bengal appears poised to match the first phase's record voter participation of 93.19 per cent by the time final numbers are collated.
The figures put the combined poll percentage over the two-phases at 92.84 per cent. The first phase of polling was held on April 23.
"This is the highest-ever recorded poll participation since Independence in West Bengal," it said.
The capital Kolkata recorded a turnout of 88.59 per cent, with Purba Bardhaman district topping the charts at 93.78 per cent.
The scale of participation sent out an overarching political message — practically every single eligible voter in the state felt personally invested in the electoral process and its outcome. They turned out in numbers large enough to make every narrative contested and every claim of momentum politically loaded. If the first phase tested whether the BJP could retain its north Bengal citadel, the second and final round was always the real battle for the saffron party on whether it could breach the ruling TMC’s southern fortress of Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman.
At the centre of the larger political fight stood Bhabanipur, no longer merely a south Kolkata constituency but Banerjee’s political refuge, her emotional home turf and the BJP’s chosen psychological battlefield.
Banerjee, 71, seeking a fourth consecutive term after 15 years in power, faced Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in a prestige battle widely seen as a symbolic rematch of Nandigram, where Adhikari had defeated her in 2021 after crossing over from the TMC to the BJP.
Five years later, the duel shifted to Banerjee’s own bastion. For the TMC, retaining Bhabanipur is about protecting the chief minister’s authority in her own backyard. For the BJP, breaching it would puncture the aura of invincibility around Bengal’s most powerful political figure.
The constituency witnessed nearly 87 per cent polling, sharply up from around 61 per cent in the 2021 assembly polls and 57 per cent in the bypoll that brought Banerjee back to the House.
Banerjee – who usually votes later in the day and prefers staying indoors on the day of polls – broke convention and hit the ground before 8 am, moving through Chetla, Padmapukur and Chakraberia areas following complaints of alleged intimidation of local TMC leaders.
As she sat outside a booth amid heavy deployment of central forces, Adhikari arrived there and declared, "I will not allow any hooliganism." He opposed Banerjee moving around with "50-60 people" with her.
Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to "rig" the election by using central forces, election observers and officials.
"The BJP wants to rig this election. Polls in Bengal are usually peaceful. Is there a goonda raj here?" she said, alleging intimidation of TMC polling agents and late-night visits by CRPF personnel to party workers’ homes.
"The atrocities by the central forces are unprecedented. What is happening is not at all free and fair polls. But despite all this, we have full faith that we will win," she said after casting her vote.
Adhikari dismissed the charges as "frustration", claiming Banerjee had realised that "not a single vote was coming her way".
Tension flared again in Kalighat when Adhikari visited another booth, and TMC workers raised slogans against him. Police resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd as BJP supporters answered with counter-slogans. Reports of sporadic tension were also received from some other areas amid sights of long queues at polling stations, booth-level flare-ups, and political bickering.
In Kolkata's Entally, BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal alleged that the TMC's polling agents tried to assault her after she objected to overcrowding inside a booth and a lack of voter privacy.
In Panihati, BJP candidate and the R G Kar victim's mother, Ratna Debnath, faced protests, while her party colleague in Basanti, Bikash Sardar, alleged that "200 to 250 TMC goons" attacked his vehicle and assaulted his driver.
The TMC, meanwhile, accused the central forces of exercising brute force on the general voters at Falta's Belsingha village, especially women, who were beaten up during a move to disperse a crowd from near a polling station.The party also alleged CAPF high-handedness on women and a four-year-old child at Sathachhia in Howrah and on villagers at Ausgram in Purba Bardhaman district.
"In the name of ensuring security, central force jawans are not sparing even women who were brutally lathi-charged. TMC protests this highhandedness of the male jawans who exercised brute force on unarmed villagers. We draw the EC's attention to such illegal actions of the CAPF and ask the poll body to issue cease-and-desist orders against such use of force. We believe, people of Bengal will respond to this on EVMs," Anirban Banerjee, party spokesperson, said.
The BJP alleged that in several polling stations in Falta, the option to vote for the party was blocked using a tape over EVM poll buttons, and demanded repolls in the affected booths.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal said repolling was likely to be announced in booths where EVMs were found tampered with. However, the order will only be issued after authorities receive reports from the district election officer or election observers regarding allegations of EVM tampering, such as using tapes or a blot of ink, he said.
