Haryana, Goa, Assam, Punjab, Chandigarh lead in rollout of new criminal laws

Published 30 June 2026 · india

Haryana, Goa, Assam, Chandigarh and Punjab have emerged as the five best-performing states and Union territories in implementing the three new criminal laws that came

Haryana, Goa, Assam, Chandigarh and Punjab have emerged as the five best-performing states and Union territories in implementing the three new criminal laws that came into force on July 1, 2024, officials said. Performance is assessed across four parameters: administrative reforms, operational efficiency, information and communication technology application, and integration. The officials said the weightage of these parameters changes with regular revisions. They added that most states are above the national average, while West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have also reported progress in implementing the provisions of the new laws. Read Full Story The three laws – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 – replaced the British-era criminal laws.

Officials described their implementation as a watershed moment in the country's criminal jurisprudence, and said the new framework aims to complete the process from FIR to a Supreme Court decision within three years. The laws provide for a common platform, the Interoperable Criminal Justice System, or ICJS, which enables "seamless interoperability" among the five main pillars of criminal justice – police, courts, jails, forensics and prosecution – to support a faster system. Officials said 23 states and Union territories have fully integrated into the new version of ICJS 2.0. According to Union Home Ministry data, 39.56 per cent of chargesheets were filed within the mandatory 90-day deadline under the new criminal laws in 2024, and this rose to 60.96 per cent in 2026.

The share of chargesheets filed within the mandatory 60-day deadline rose from 50.92 per cent in 2024 to 67.26 per cent in 2026. In sexual offence cases, 44 per cent of chargesheets were filed within the mandatory two-month period, and this increased to 75.16 per cent in 2025. Officials also cited the Presidency prison, one of the oldest jails in the country, for using video conferencing facilities as required under the new criminal laws. Over the past two years, 74.66 lakh FIRs have been registered under the BNS, along with 63,572 zero FIRs. Police across the country generated 46.50 lakh evidence IDs using the e-Sakshya application, and eight new Central Forensic Science Laboratories have been sanctioned, taking the total to 15.

Overall, the officials said the rollout of the new criminal laws has seen leading performances from Haryana, Goa, Assam, Chandigarh and Punjab, wider integration through ICJS 2.0, and improved compliance with filing deadlines as the system changes over the past two years. Ends