On Monday, a street vendor in Delhi’s Kamla Nagar market was charged with obstruction of a public way. This was one of the first cases registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, which has now replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Similarly, in Bhopal, a case was registered against a person for obscenity in a public place. These cases highlight the extent of transformation, or lack thereof, that the new criminal laws have brought to India’s criminal justice system (‘CJS’).