The Bar Council of India on Wednesday urged bar associations across the country to refrain from protesting against the three new criminal laws that will come into effect from July 1, Bar and Bench reported.

The three new criminal bills were passed by Parliament in December. The Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita will replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita will replace the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill will replace the Indian Evidence Act.

On Wednesday, the Bar Council of India said that several bar associations have intimated that they would hold indefinite protests unless the new laws were suspended. The statement said that the bar associations have sought thorough nationwide discussions, including a comprehensive review by Parliament on the three laws, reported Bar and Bench.

The Bar Council of West Bengal on Wednesday said that it would observe July 1 as “Black Day” calling the three new criminal laws as anti-people, undemocratic and likely to cause great hardships to citizens, reported Live Law.

The members of the state bar council said that lawyers across West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands would abstain from all judicial work on July 1 to organise protest rallies.

However, the Bar Council of India said on Wednesday that it would communicate the concerns of legal professionals with the Union government.

“The Bar Council of India assures the Bar Associations and the legal fraternity that these issues are being taken seriously and there is no cause for immediate concern,” it said. “Consequently, there is no immediate necessity for agitation, protests, or strikes in relation to this issue.”

It also requested all bar associations and senior advocates to submit specific provisions of the new laws that they find unconstitutional or detrimental, to facilitate a dialogue with the Union government.

While introducing the three new bills in Parliament in August, Union home minister Amit Shah said that they would “end three colonial laws” currently governing India’s criminal justice framework, and provide criminal laws “by Indians, for Indians”.

The bills were passed in Parliament after 100 Opposition MPs in the Lower House, besides 46 in the Upper House, had been suspended from a part of the Winter Session for allegedly disrupting the proceedings as they sought a discussion on the December 13 security breach in the chamber of the Lower House.

The new laws increase the power of the state to collect personal data and seize property and make it more difficult to secure bail and file first information reports. They also make punishments more stringent for crimes such as lynching, endangering national security and terrorism.

On June 21, a group of 109 former civil servants also urged the Union government to defer the implementation of the new criminal laws and ensure that they are reviewed at an all-party meeting.

They also alleged that the laws regularise extraordinary powers “which should normally be available only in legitimate states of emergency as already provided in the Constitution”. “The effect of these laws, as currently approved, is that, once they come into effect, India will no longer be a functioning democracy,” wrote the former civil servants.

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