E-Paper
Lawyer files PIL in Supreme Court seeking 'One Nation One Penal Code' in place of 'colonial' IPC
The PIL, filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, who is also a leader of the ruling BJP, is likely to be heard next week.
Lawyer and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Upadhyay has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, seeking directions to the Union government to set up a committee of experts to draft a "comprehensive" and "stringent" penal code after examining the existing statutes, including the Indian Penal Code (IPC) of 1860, related to matters of crime and corruption.
"Direct the Centre to constitute an expert committee to examine all domestic and internal laws relating to corruption-crime, and draft a comprehensive and stringent 'one nation one penal code' in order to secure the rule of law, equality before laws and equal protection of laws," the PIL, filed through advocate Ashwini Dubey, stated. It further urged the top court to direct the central government to ascertain the feasibility of implementing a stringent and comprehensive IPC (One Nation One Penal Code), instead of the current "outdated" laws on crime and corruption.
The petition, which is likely to be taken up for hearing next week, described the IPC, which is more than 160 years old, as "colonial." It also called for specific chapters on bribery, money laundering, black money, profiteering, adulteration, hoarding, black marketing, drug smuggling, gold smuggling and human trafficking to be included in the proposed "One Nation One Penal Code."
The PIL also pointed that despite witch-hunting, honour killing, mob lynching, Goonda Act, etc. being pan-India offences, laws related to these are not included in the existing IPC. Due to this, it said, there are multiple sentences for the same offence in various states. "Hence, a new IPC is essential to standardise the punishment and make them uniform," the petition stated.
The development comes at a time when the Supreme Court has questioned the Centre over the misuse of the "colonial" sedition law. Section 124(A) of the IPC has laws related to sedition.
(with PTI inputs)
