Context

  • Aiming to make comprehensive changes in criminal laws, the government has initiated the process of amendment to laws such as the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act in consultation with all stakeholders.
  • In this context, the article analyses some of the challenges in India’s criminal justice system.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

Background

Criminal Justice System:

  • The Criminal Justice System refers to the agencies of government charged with enforcing the law, adjudicating crime, and correcting criminal conduct.
  • The legal framework for Criminal Jurisprudence in India includes the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

Concerns/challenges in India’s criminal justice system

Large number of pending cases:

  • There are more than 4 crore cases pending before the judiciary including the Supreme Court, High Courts and district courts.
  • The large pendency is contributing to a large number of undertrial prisoners which is consequently leading to human rights violations of the undertrials and convicts.

Inaccessibility of justice:

  • The inordinate emphasis on institution-building rather than capacity building of the judiciary has led to a situation where the justice mechanisms have become inaccessible to the poor and marginalised classes of citizens.

Police excesses:

  • The abuse of power by the police remains a major concern.
  • There are several Supreme Court and high court cases that have revealed how investigations were pursued in order to frame innocent persons or subject them to harassment.

Excessive stress on crime prevention:

  • The Indian criminal system sets itself the utopian goal of achieving a hundred per cent rate of success in crime prevention. This is an unattainable ideal.
  • Initiatives such as community policing mechanisms and situational crime prevention have been ineffective. Also, the excessive stress on crime control seems to be promoting the abuse of power by the police.

Continued reliance on custodial punishments:

  • Despite several research studies showing that punishment has little impact on lowering crime rates, custodial punishment remains the main aspect of the criminal justice system in India. This is leading to the problem of overcrowding of prisons.
  • Diversionary principles in the treatment of offenders are yet to materialise despite several Law Commissions and committees having recommended non-custodial measures of punishment of offenders.

Lack of data:

  • There continues to be a lack of reliable state-sponsored data collection, maintenance and analysis mechanisms that can help in evidence-based policymaking in the realm of criminal justice reforms.
    • Criminal justice system reforms broadly comprise three sets of reforms viz. Judicial reforms, Prison reforms, Police reforms.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

Recommendations

Accepting issues:

  • While taking measures to reform criminal laws and criminal justice, the existing challenges in the criminal justice system need to be acknowledged first. Accepting and acknowledging the problems will have a favourable impact on the way we plan our institutional reforms and responses.
    • Acknowledging the inaccessibility issue being faced by the poor and marginalized sections of society will lead to measures being taken to empower such sections to tap into the criminal justice system.
    • Acknowledging the limitations of mere ethical obligations on police officers to limit their misuse or abuse of power will lead to the adoption of measures like independent investigative procedures and stern punitive sanctions against errant police officers.
    • Accepting the pendency issue in the criminal justice system may force us to reconsider the tendency to over-criminalise conduct.

Holistic reforms:

  • There is a need for holistic reforms in our criminal justice system.
  • Addressing the existing challenges in the system requires concurrent reforms at the institutional, social and individual levels.

Similar Posts