SUNDAY, JULY 07, 2024
The recently passed criminal laws have come into force in the country from July 1. But government officials, law enforcement agencies, legal professionals and law academic institutions have claimed that the current system is not yet capable enough of implementing these new changes. The Centre has asked ministries and other key stakeholders to incorporate the new laws in their training programmes for a smooth transition. The new Bharatiya Nyay Samhita has 358 Sections, compared to 511 sections in the earlier Indian Penal Code. Overall, 20 offences have been redefined and punishments have been increased in 33 offences, among other changes.
The new Bharatiya Nyay Samhita has a new chapter on ‘Crimes against Women and Children’ and has references to terrorism, organised crime, mob lynching, snatching and killings due to racism, caste and communal enmity. The Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Samhita has 484 Sections, instead of 531 Sections in CrPC. It has two new cases, taking the total number to 39. The main feature of the the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha is the addition of time frames in 35 Sections out of the total Sections and the use of new-age technology like audio-video media. The Bharatiya Sakhsya Adhiniyam now has 170 sections, instead of 167 Sections in the Evidence Act. Twenty-four provisions have been amended. In fact, the text of any law is first tested after it is drafted. The current criminal justice system is already under a lot of stress, and hence may initially struggle to adjust to these changes. New laws will take years to develop and mature. The same happened with the Indian Penal Code and other laws. The real test will begin how stakeholders use the laws and the courts interpret them.
According to the India Justice Report 2022, the strength of India’s police force is 20.94 lakh. There are only 211 training institutes for these officers. Accordingly, each institution is expected to train an average of 12,744 persons. However, the number of officers and institutions is not equally distributed among the States. The report also states that only 1.3 per cent of the police budget goes to training, and only 84 per cent of it is being utilised. Apart from the low budget allocation for police training, another problem is the ability of the States to spare their personnel for training.
It is well known that the country’s criminal justice system is understaffed and overworked. The report shows a gap of 22 per cent between sanctioned posts and actual numbers. The problem could have been solved through the use of technology and modernisation of the police force. However, only Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and Puducherry have fully utilised their budgets for modernisation. There are also questions about the State’s ability to train prison staff. There is a severe shortage of prison staff in India. The report states that while 2,770 posts are needed to achieve the ideal ratio of 1 officer for 200 inmates, only 1,391 posts have been sanctioned across the country. Out of these, only 886 posts have been filled. Even if we had an ideal number of correctional officers, it would have been difficult to save prison officers for training. But in the current situation, this task seems impossible.
In terms of the judiciary, the report states that compared to the sanctioned number of judges - 24,631 for the lower courts, 1,108 for the high courts and 34 for the Supreme Court, the actual number of judges in the lower courts is 19,286, the high court is 778, and for the Supreme Court it is 27 (Currently, the Supreme Court has 33 judges). At the end of 2022, more than 4.9 crore cases were pending before the judiciary. Moreover, the report states that the workload of each judge is increasing over time. The new laws emphasise the use of forensics. According to the Forensic Science India report by Project 39A at NLU Delhi, out of 2,357 posts of scientists in State and central forensic agencies, 901 are vacant. The report suggests that not only do we need to create 900 more posts, but lack of regulatory bodies and low pay scales have led to irregular training patterns and reduced occupancy of these scientific posts.
Effective implementation of the new criminal laws in India requires a proactive approach towards enhancing the training needs of criminal justice officers. The existing police officers should be trained to deal with the necessary forensic work. Also, young forensic researchers and postgraduates in forensics need to be trained as para-forensic workers to assist the local police.
