West Bengal Govt Constitutes Committee To Review New Criminal Laws, Suggest State-Specific Amendments

The West Bengal government has passed a resolution constituting a seven-member committee to review the newly implemented criminal laws in order to inter alia determine whether the names of the statutes need to be changed at a state level and to suggest state-specific amendments. 

The members of the committee are as follows:

Justice (Retd) Ashim Kumar Roy, (Retired Justice, Calcutta High Court & Lokayukta, West Bengal); Malay Ghatak, (MIC, Law Department, Judicial Department and Labour Department); Chandrima Bhattacharyya, (MOS (I-C), Finance Department, Health & Family Welfare Department and Land & Land Reforms and Refugee, Relief & Rehabilitation Department); Advocate General, West Bengal; Sanjay Basu, (Sr. Standing Counsel for the State of W.B., Supreme Court of India); Director General & Inspector General of Police, West Bengal and Commissioner of Police, Kolkata.

The resolution passed on 16th July refers to Article 246 (2) of the Constitution which states that notwithstanding anything in List-ll (State List), Parliament, and, subject to List-I (Union List), the Legislature of any State also, has the power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List-lIl in the Seventh Schedule (Concurrent List).

It further adds that the Concurrent List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution provides the following entries:-

(a) Criminal law, including all matters included in the Indian Penal Code at the commencement of this Constitution but excluding offences against laws with respect to any of the matters specified in List-I or List-ll and excluding the use of naval, military or air forces or any other armed forces f the Union in aid of the civil power.

(b) Criminal procedure, including all matters included in the Code of Criminal Procedure at the commencement of this Constitution.

According to the resolution, the State Government had written to the Government of India to defer the operation of the said Criminal Laws and the issues raised by the State Government were not considered by the Central Government. Accordingly, it added that:

In view of the importance and wide-ranging implications of the three laws; the State Government deems it necessary to constitute a Committee that shall examine the following:-

(a) Suggest state-specific amendments as required to the three Criminal Laws.

(b) Whether the names of the Criminal Laws are required to be changed at the state level?

(c) Any other matter that the Committee may consider necessary.

Accordingly, the State government constituted the aforesaid committee to review the newly implemented criminal laws.

The Committee shall have the power to engage academic experts, senior advocates, research assistants, and other legal experts to seek their views on the subject matter. The Committee shall also have the power to carry out public consultation and seek opinions from the public.

The Committee shall submit its findings in the form of a report within 3 months from the date of the notification. 

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