The Union Government has rolled out an intensive training strategy for police and prison department personnel across the country on the new criminal laws and to sensitise them to the transition from the colonial legacies to a new system of justice.
In a communication to Heads of Police Forces and Prison Departments, the Ministry of Home Affairs said the Parliament had replaced the three existing laws, namely the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 by three new progressive and modern pieces of legislation, namely the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 respectively.
The new laws that were aimed at providing speedy justice to the citizens and strengthening the judicial and court management system were based on the principle of access to justice by all and would come into force with effect from July 1, 2024.
The Home Ministry said the new criminal law had several new provisions, synchronised with modern-day times and contemporary technologies. They were envisaged at bringing in an era of ease of policing and justice. It was the endeavour of the Government of India to reach out to all ranks of police and prison officers in the country to make them aware of the positive and advanced changes so as to equip them with the basic knowledge and understanding of various new provisions, which would help them in implementing the same in right earnest and with confidence.
The Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D), a premier training and research arm of the MHA, had developed the Training of Trainers’ module and various other training programmes for different levels of police/prison personnel on the new criminal laws. Integration had also been completed with ‘Integrated Government Online Training’ (iGOT) portal to make the courses available to the trainees.
Leaving none behind
These training modules were shared by BPR&D with all States/UTs enabling them to conduct training programmes in their Police Training Institutes. To augment and strengthen the exercise of educating the police and prison officials about the new laws, the MHA sought the active indulgence and involvement of the Heads of police forces and prison departments in making appropriate arrangements for providing “intensive training to all police and prison personnel without leaving anyone behind.”
States/UTs were requested to spare their police/prison officers for undergoing training sessions on new criminal laws and approach BPR&D for providing training to police and prison personnel. BPR&D would facilitate in providing resource persons and relevant literature for holding the training programmes.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) was also holding online training/ briefing sessions on ‘technical aspects’ of implementation of new criminal laws.
