The Third Eye: Improving the delivery of justice

New Delhi: Under the current regime at the Centre, there is a continuing effort to expedite the dispensation of justice for the common man.

Initiatives have been taken basically in the directions of a meaningful revision of laws, reform in the process of investigation by underscoring the importance of forensics and introduction of digitisation and related technologies for cutting down delays.

A number of amendments have been made in the IPC, CrPC and the Evidence Act with the twin objective of strengthening the 'deterrence' of punishment against crime and keeping the 'Citizens and their dignity first'.

Delays are sought to be minimised at various stages of the judicial process -- including investigation, prosecution and court hearings -- by laying down time limits on filing of charge sheets, providing for recording of evidence on video and encouraging announcement of early judgements through the avoidance of needless adjournments.

Evidently, the new laws and the method of their implementation needed to be explained to all stakeholders and the Centre has rightly directed the top training establishments of the Police to suitably add new points of orientation in their programmes.

The quantum expansion of the forensic skills needed by the investigators is now an important challenge which is being attended to in a systematic way.

Dispensation of timely justice to the people is basic to the stability of a democratic state and it is a matter of satisfaction that a comprehensive attempt is being made by the Centre to view this as a fundamental plank of governance. The outcome of these transformational moves was eagerly awaited.

It is at the 44th All India Criminology Conference held at National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), Gandhinagar, in January 2024 that Union Home Minister Amit Shah explained that Parliament had in December 2023 earlier, passed new Penal Codes in replacement of the 150-year old IPC, CrPC and the Evidence Act -- abolishing laws that had a colonial imprint, providing new codes for delivering timely justice and also making sure that technology was embraced for boosting the conviction rate.

He announced that it had been made mandatory for a Forensic Science Officer to visit the crime scene of offences that had a punishment of imprisonment of seven years or more. He gave out that attaching priority to the growing threat of cyber crimes, the Centre had established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for enlarging the cyber security infrastructure and launching nationwide campaigns to raise public awareness about cyber safety issues.

As many as 313 changes were made in the old Penal Codes to respond to changing social and political trends in keeping with the principle that legal frameworks were created for society and must adopt to its needs for justice relevant to the times.

Some important provisions made in the new laws were directly meant to cut short delays in the dispensation of justice. No case will ordinarily last for more than three years -- from the institution of the criminal case to the passing of judgement by the trial court.

A time cap of 90 days has been put for filing charge sheets which could be extended by court for another 90 days -- thus allowing for a maximum of 120 days between the FIR and the submission of charge sheet.

The amendments in the law attach importance to the rights of the accused, introduce special provisions to protect women and children and seek to prevent misuse of police powers. Police is obliged to inform a complainant about the status of the investigation on the completion of 90 days of the complaint and do it every 15 days after that.

Judges must deliver the judgement within 30 days of the completion of arguments and the judgement should be made available on line within seven days of the verdict.

No government can withdraw a case of imprisonment of seven years or more without hearing the victim. Prime Minister Modi's government introduced stringent laws to curbs sexual offences against women and children.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, provided for death penalty in case of rape of a girl aged below 12 years with a minimum punishment of 20 years -- extendable to life imprisonment in case of rape of a girl below 16 years.

The minimum punishment in case of rape of a woman has been increased from seven years to 10 years extendable to life imprisonment. The new laws mandate that courts will issue orders based on the investigator's advice.

The concept of trial in absentia has been introduced ensuring that fugitives can be tried and sentenced even if they are not in the country. Further, crimes such as lynching, terrorism, armed rebellion and secessionism have been defined and provision made for confiscation of the property of such offenders.

Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF) scheme includes training programmes designed to foster good police-public relations and enhance trust of the people in law enforcement agencies.

The Centre has set the goal of achieving 90 per cent conviction rate. On the whole creating deterrence against crimes that caused destabilisation of society is a welcome step.

A basic problem with law and order management is that Constitution-wise it is totally a responsibility of the states with Centre having no locus standi to exercise any oversight function except for an occasion where there was a complete breakdown of law and order paving the way for the Centre's intervention.

Political interference with the working of the Police, professionally incompetent officers securing senior positions because of favouritism and police stations failing to present a favourable picture to the law-abiding citizens -- these are the principal systemic reasons why India was unable to reach a uniform level of implementation of law and maintenance of order throughout the country.

If the new Penal Codes are implemented without any impediment being created by vested political interests and if the Police leadership sees to it that the concept of policing being a people-friendly function of the state was understood down the line, things would certainly improve.

A say of the Centre in the appointment of the Chief Secretary and the DGP of the state through the instrumentality of UPSC -- howsoever indirect -- would go a long way in uplifting the standards of law and order management and bringing justice to the people. The Supreme Court of India had an occasion to deprecate the trend of state governments appointing 'Officiating DGP' for their political convenience and lay down the broad procedure for the selection of a regular DGP.

It is not clear how the Centre availed of this support of the apex court in bringing about an upgradation of policing in the states.

At the diamond jubilee function of the Supreme Court held recently, both PM Narendra Modi and D.Y. Chandrachud, the Chief Justice of India, spoke of the need to make the judicial system more accessible to the common people.

The Prime Minister underscored the importance of 'ease of justice' terming the Supreme Court as the main instrument for ensuring the same and projected this as the right of every Indian citizen.

Recalling that 44 crore cases were pending in District Courts alone he recommended greater use of technology for reducing pendency. He wanted swift justice in offences against women to give them greater assurance of safety and pointed out that stricter laws had been enacted to deal with crimes against women and children.

He expressed confidence that e-court project and digitisation would speed up delivery of justice and urged Supreme Court to ensure that district judiciary was given suitable training in this regard.

The Chief Justice of India Chandrachud made the fundamental points that 'judging must be free of social and political pressures', that a judgement should be above 'inherent human biases' and that 'judiciary had a vital role in upholding democratic values'.

He observed that Supreme Court was created with a sense of idealism -- to interpret judicial matters in accordance with 'rule of law' and not by colonial values or social hierarchies -- and added that judiciary should serve as a bulwark against injustice, tyranny and arbitrariness.

He viewed the right to speedy justice as a fundamental right of citizens and added that Supreme Court had taken proactive measures to reduce pendency.

Meanwhile, the new Law Commission which will start functioning in September has been mandated, among other things, "to implement a framework for effective management of court cases to eliminate delays and clear the backlog".

It is good to see that the government and the judiciary at the highest levels were engaged in tackling the issue of speedy justice.