While discussing the three new criminal law bills in Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said in the proposed laws, there will be a provision for the death penalty for the crime of mob lynching.

The proposed laws aim to revamp the criminal justice system in the country with a focus on “justice” instead of “punishment” according to the Centre.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the period under Narendra Modi’s government recorded the least number of mob lynching incidents in the country since independence. The Home Minister made these remarks while introducing the new criminal code bills in the Rajya Sabha.

Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which aims to replace the Indian Penal Code, mob lynching has been made an offence punishable by the death penalty, the Home Minister informed the Upper House.

“We have added 21 new offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita, and one of them is mob lynching. We have been accused of protecting culprits in mob lynching. However, you [Opposition] have never enacted any law, but we have. There can be no bigger crime than murder, and we will deal with it harshly,” Amit Shah said.

Along with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, which seeks to replace the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita, which replaces the Indian Evidence Act, were passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and by the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Introducing the bills in the Rajya Sabha, the Home Minister stated that the new laws aim to overhaul the criminal justice system in the country and establish a “justice system based on Indian thinking.” According to him, the existing criminal laws were “reflective of the colonial mindset with the intention of punishing and not imparting justice.”

“The soul of these laws is Indian, and for the first time, our criminal justice system will be governed by laws made by India, for India, and made in the Indian Parliament,” Amit Shah added.

The Home Minister also emphasised that the “soul, body, and thought of the new criminal laws are purely Bharatiya” and that they will “usher in a new era in the criminal justice system”.