TMC MP Derek O’Brien at Parliament House complicated throughout Monsoon session, in New Delhi, on August 9, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI
At least three members of the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs have protested against the short notice at which the panel is meeting to start deliberations on three bills — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Sakhshya Bill, 2023 that search to overhaul the Indian criminal justice system by changing Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
TMC’s Derek O’ Brien & Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, together with Congress chief Digvijay Singh have written the letter. The committee as per the unique schedule was to meet on August 24 to undertake a draft report on “Prison-Condition Infrastructure and Reforms” a topic on which it has lengthy been deliberating on.
A recent notice was issued to the members on August 18 at evening, that on August 24, 25 and 26, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla will transient the members on the varied elements of the three bills.
In his letter, Mr. O’ Brien mentioned, that because the Monsoon session of Parliament lately ended the members each from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have made a number of commitments of their constituencies. “This is too short a notice (a few days only) for discussion of a Bill with implications of this magnitude. Please revise the dates and schedule it in the month of September, considering that many members of the committee are present for these meetings,” he wrote.
Speaking on the situation of anonymity, one other member identified that the bills have been referred to the panel solely on August 18. “On the same day, as the bill was referred to the committee, we receive notices that it has been listed for deliberations. This is very surprising, considering, the committee was immune to our requests to debate the ongoing violence in Manipur. But now, the same committee is in a tearing hurry,” a member mentioned.
On July 6, Congress and TMC members had walked out of the meeting in protest for ignoring their pleas to talk about Manipur violence.