The Ministry of Home Affairs provided an update on the implementation of India's new criminal laws in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) came into force throughout the country effective 1 July 2024, with States and Union Territories taking necessary implementation measures including issuing notifications and rules, adopting digital applications, and conducting capacity building.
Training of police personnel and other stakeholders is primarily undertaken by State/UT Governments, supplemented by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) which has conducted capacity-building programs and webinars for Master Trainers across all 36 States and Union Territories. Since 2024, BPR&D has trained 83,740 officers and stakeholders from the five pillars of the criminal justice system, including Master Trainers. The detailed breakdown shows: Bhopal unit trained 13,561 personnel (11,444 State, 1,167 UT, 20 CAPF, 173 CPO, 757 others); Chandigarh trained 21,218 (3,561 State, 2,174 UT, 97 CAPF, 205 CPO, 15,181 others); Hyderabad trained 20,162 (8,013 State, 1,117 UT, 474 CAPF, 80 CPO, 10,478 others); Bengaluru trained 300 (278 State, 13 UT, 9 CAPF); Jaipur trained 11,354 (10,315 State, 265 UT, 22 CAPF, 93 CPO, 659 others); Kolkata trained 6,636 (4,206 State, 210 UT, 950 CAPF, 652 CPO, 618 others); Ghaziabad trained 10,509 (8,435 State, 605 UT, 745 CAPF, 519 CPO, 205 others).
These Master Trainers have been utilized by State training institutions for further training within their respective States/UTs. Annexure-II provides comprehensive state-wise capacity building data, showing a total of 1,706,735 personnel trained across all states and UTs, with detailed breakdowns by police (1,572,863 trained), prison officers (53,026 targeted, 50,588 trained), prosecutors (14,181 targeted, 13,446 trained), judicial officers (21,752 targeted, 20,825 trained), and forensic experts (3,423 targeted, 3,406 trained).
Additionally, 110 e-learning courses have been hosted on the iGOT Karmayogi platform, with 76 courses specifically relating to the new criminal laws. The Nyaya Sanhita provides for technology use at various criminal justice stages, with available digital systems including electronic FIR registration (e-FIRs), electronic summons (e-Summons), audio-video recording of search and investigation proceedings, forensic evidence videography, electronic statement recording (e-Sakshya), video conferencing for court proceedings (Nyaya Shruti), MedLeaPR for medical legal reports, and the Inter Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) for electronic document exchange among police, courts, prisons, prosecution, and forensic labs.
The Central Government supplements State/UT efforts through financial support for criminal justice infrastructure augmentation under various schemes including Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) 2.0, forensic capacity modernization schemes, and Nirbhaya Fund-supported projects. Data collection templates have been modified to ensure consistency, comparability and continuity with previous years' crime data reporting.