Amit Shah set a one-year deadline to implement new criminal laws in India

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday set a one-year deadline for 100 per cent implementation of the three new criminal laws, saying the move will enable disposal of criminal cases up to the Supreme Court within three years and raise the conviction rate by 25 per cent.

Addressing the valedictory session of the Intelligence Bureau’s two-day ninth National Security Strategies (NSS) Conference-2026 that concluded on Tuesday, Shah said the forum of NSS needs to anticipate security challenges 15-20 years ahead and devise strategies to prevent them from becoming major threats.

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) came into effect on July 1, 2024. The new laws replaced the British-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act respectively.

“There will be 100 per cent implementation of three new laws in the next one year, so that criminal cases can be disposed of up to the Supreme Court within three years and the conviction rate will increase by 25 per cent,” the home minister said.

He said integrated data bank of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), NatGrid and National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) has been created.

Shah said all young officers should develop actionable intelligence through data



integration, analysis and identification of modus operandi through AI, so that future challenges can be prevented.

He said the government has “ended” the challenges posed by three major internal-security hotspots– Naxals, Jammu and Kashmir terror and Northeast insurgency– and credited the police forces of all states, central agencies and Central Armed Police Forces for the achievement.

He said that had earlier governments visualised the problems of narcotics, Naxalism and the Northeast before they became acute, the country would not have had to bear the brunt of them for decades..

Shah said the destruction of the entire cadre and banning of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in one night was an “excellent example” of Centre-state coordination.

The home minister said he had visited all land-border states over the past eight months and shared with them a document outlining a quadrangular approach to border security.

“Our aim is to make the country free of infiltrators in a very short time,” he said. Calling infiltrators a threat to national security, the economy and demographic change, Shah said only citizens of the country have the right to live in India.

“This country is not a dharamshala and only the citizens of the country have the right to live in this country, infiltrators are a threat to the country’s security, economy and demographic change,” he said.