Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court said that he would continue to refer to the criminal laws by their original names even after they are replaced with new names in Hindi, as it is a language he did not know. The judge made the remarks while hearing a case on Tuesday, January 23. Justice Venkatesh said that he would refer to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act by their original names. “I will refer to IPC only as IPC, because I don’t know that language [Hindi],” he said.
According to a report in The Hindu, the lawyers were referring to several Supreme Court judgements and multiple amendments the CrPC went through, with respect to the limitation period. Limitation period refers to the time period since the occurrence of an event/alleged offence within which legal proceedings can be initiated. Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) A Damodaran wished to make a reference to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which would replace the CrPC, and asked the judge to refer to “the new Act”. When the judge, in a lighter vein, asked the APP to name the ‘new act’, the APP found it difficult to pronounce the Hindi name. Seeing this, Justice Venkatesh said, “So, Damodaran has cleverly chosen to simply refer to it as the new Act.”
Three new criminal laws were tabled in the Parliament and passed recently. The President gave assent to Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita (formerly Indian Penal Code), Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita (formerly Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)), and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Sanhita (formerly Indian Evidence Act), in December last year. The dates from which these Acts will come into effect will be notified by the Home Ministry.