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: In what may result in the first review of the new Indian criminal codes, the Centre has started discussions on the misuse of Sections 85 and 86 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) that criminalize domestic violence against women by their husbands and in-laws, said Union law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal in an interview. The development comes after the Supreme Court expressed concerns over the replication of Section 498A of the now-repealed Indian Penal Code in the BNS without adequate safeguards for husbands and their relatives against frivolous complaints. In the nearly three months since the BNS came into force, the ministry has received feedback from the apex court about the provision, said Meghwal, who is the minister of state with independent charge of the ministry of law and justice.
Also Read: “We have received one judicial pronouncement to date about Section 498A that it was kept unchanged in the new law, and we take up issues raised in all judicial pronouncements that come to us. The issue of Section 498A is related to crimes of cruelty against women. We are currently discussing it," he said.
On 1 July, the Union government enforced the BNS, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), which replaced the IPC, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively. However, it was notified that cases filed before 1 July will continue to be adjudicated according to the IPC. Section 498A, which was added to the IPC in 1983 to curb the surge in dowry-related crimes against women, was used as it is in the new law.
It had a penal provision and an added explanation to define "cruelty". In the BNS, these two components have been split into Sections 85 and 86, respectively, under the category of crimes against women and children. To be clear, the law remains unchanged.
Cruelty against women by their husbands or in-laws is punishable with three years of imprisonment and a fine. Also Read: Last week, the Supreme Court in a judgment that Section 498A was one of the most misused provisions in the country, involving a considerable number of frivolous cases. Earlier in May, the top court said it was worrisome that Section 498A was kept unchanged in the BNS without any provision for the husband's protection.
Arbitration push To address the mounting pendency of lawsuits—over 50 million cases—in Indian courts, Meghwal said the ministry is conducting an “ageing analysis" to identify cases that have been running for a long time. “We are conducting an ageing analysis..
.how old are pending cases..
.and the reason for pendency..
.to understand the cause of delay. It is possible that the person who filed the case does not exist, or that one witness is not appearing before the court.
..and the court cannot decide before it has heard all witnesses.
" There were 27.3 million pending magisterial cases, including petty crimes, in district courts on 18 September, according to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). Meghwal said the use of community service as punishment in petty crime cases has increased after the implementation of new criminal codes.
Over 5.6 million civil suits, over 2.5 million criminal cases, and as many as 2.
5 million criminal appeals were also pending in Indian courts, showed the NJDG data, which indicated that the most common reason for delays was the unavailability of legal counsel. Also Read: The law ministry is also focusing on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms such as arbitration and mediation to curb the burgeoning litigation pendency, Meghwal said. Arbitration and mediation are out-of-court dispute resolution methods.
Parties choose a person or group to render a decree or to come to an amicable consensus. When asked about the steps taken to make India a global arbitration hub, a key focus for the ministry when Meghwal took charge, he said: “This is all a part of ADR mechanisms. We are working on constituting the Mediation Council of India and discussing ways to improve the arbitration ecosystem after the Union finance ministry pointed out certain issues.
" Meghwal told that the law ministry is drafting rules under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the nation's key law on arbitration, and trying to resolve issues raised by the finance ministry's June advisory. The department of expenditure in the finance ministry issued an office memorandum to all government arms, including state governments and public sector undertakings (PSUs), in June to avoid arbitration worth over 10 crore because it is expensive and time-consuming and instead use mediation in such cases. The advisory even urged recipients to litigate in courts instead of arbitration.
Also Read: Under the Mediation Act passed in 2023, the government planned to create a Mediation Council of India to decide how mediation will be conducted across the country and register mediators, among other duties. previously reported that the government will constitute the council by year-end. To be sure, some rules about the council, such as the salaries of its to-be officers, have been notified, but the council has not been constituted.
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