Bengal govt asks police training colleges to update curriculum on new criminal laws

Kolkata, Dec 31 (IANS) West Bengal government has directed the state police training schools to update their legal curriculum for the under training personnel in view of the three new Bills passed by Parliament replacing Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Indian Evidence Act (IEA). 

Highly placed sources said that instructions have sent to the police training colleges, especially to their legal cells, to incorporate Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (replacing IPC), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (CrPC) and Bharatiya Sahkshya Adhiniyam (replacing IEA) in the curriculum.

Incidentally, Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, had been one of the most vocal voices against the replacement of these three laws of British-India era, with the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee making several statements that the replacement was being pushed in haste.

“But since the replacement is already in place, there is no other option but to accept them and accordingly update our future cops with the provisions of the new laws. Hence, the police training colleges have been asked to incorporate the provisions of the three new laws in their curriculum,” said a senior official of the state government.

At the same time, he added, that two separate committees have been constituted to provide guidance on how the provisions of the replaced laws can be incorporated in the curriculum in police training institutes.

“While the one of the two committees will identify the differences between the old and new laws, the second committee will guide only these changes that will be incorporated in the curriculum for future cops,” the state government official said.

One of the two committees will be under the jurisdiction of the Police Training College at Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district, the other will be under the jurisdiction of the legal cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police.

“Both the committees have asked to submit their respective initial reports on how to implement the changes in the curriculum as per the provisions of the replaced laws,” the state government official said.

--IANS

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