Criminal Justice System – Challenges & Way Forward – Explained Pointwise

The recent acquittal of the accused in Malegaon blast case & Mumbai train blast case raises serious questions on investigating & prosecuting agencies of our countries as well as underlined a glaring failure of our criminal justice system.

What is Criminal Justice System?

The Criminal Justice System (CJS) encompasses a series of institutions, agencies, and processes established by the government to curb crime in the nation. In India, Article 21 guarantees the Right to Speedy Justice as a fundamental right. But according to Prison Statistics 2015, out of the total 4,20,000 inmates in various jails across the country, 2,82,076 or 67.2% were undertrials prisoners reflecting gross injustice and broken criminal justice system in India.

What are the issues with Criminal Justice System in India?

1. Massive Case Backlog and Judicial Delays: With nearly 30 million criminal cases pending in the system (the annual capacity of which is only half that number), and with another 10 million or more cases being added every year, whatever is left of the system is bound to collapse completely unless some radical alternatives are adopted urgently.
2. Shortage of judges: India has only about 21 judges per million people, violating recommended ratios and leading to overburdened courts, poor facilities, and systemic inefficiency.
3. Shortage of Police Personnel: Against a UN norm of 222 police personnel per lakh of population, India’s officially sanctioned strength is a paltry 181, and the actual strength is an abysmal 137. Similarly, all the judges in the country add up to just 18 per million population, despite a three-decades old Law Commission recommendation to increase it to 50, which itself is at the low end of the ratio in developed countries.
4. Even after adjusting for increasing population, India’s crime rate has been rising over the years. The decade from 2005 to 2015 saw a 28% increase in complaints of cognizable offences, from 450 per lakh population to 580.
5. Police Misconduct and Human Rights Violations: Transparency International found that 62% of people reported paying bribes during their interactions with the police. Misaligned incentives to arrest persons (for example, to demonstrate the progress of investigations) have resulted in 60% of all arrests being “unnecessary or unjustified”. Reports of custodial deaths, torture, sexual assault, and unlawful detentions reflect inadequate oversight and accountability.
6. Weak Prosecution: The prosecution system is often understaffed and lacks the specialized skills needed to effectively argue complex cases. This is sometimes made worse by poor coordination between the police and the prosecution.
7. Low Conviction Rates: India’s conviction rate remains low compared to global benchmarks, reflecting ineffective investigation and prosecution.
8. Lack of infrastructure: There are also enormous shortfalls in the number of police chowkis, weapons, forensic science laboratories (FSLs). For example, Nearly a million items sent for forensic examination in India, representing a shocking 38% of all such cases, remain unattended for a year or more. Low adoption of forensic methods, outdated tools, and lack of technological infrastructure compromise investigation quality.
9. Overcrowded Prison: A significant number of undertrials are languishing in prisons for prolonged periods, often for crimes they may not have committed, leading to severe overcrowding.
10. According to the National Crime Records Bureau:
    • More than 80% of reported crimes went unpunished due to loopholes in the present criminal justice system.
    • More than 66% of India’s prisoners are undertrials, which is over twice the global average of 32%. Of these 2,54,857 undertrials, more than 2,000 have been in prison for over five years. Overburdened by the flood of arrestees (nearly 75 lakh were arrested in 2012, according to the National Crime Records Bureau), prisons have experienced an increase in the number of undertrials and overcrowding.
    • India has one of the lowest Police-Population ratios, of 131.1 officers per 1,00,000 population (against the UN norms of 222). Corruption is also an endemic problem.

What are the reasons for poor Criminal Justice System of our country?

1. Outdated Legal and Procedural Frameworks: Many laws and procedures date back to the colonial era and have not kept pace with modern crime trends, especially organized and cybercrimes. This has led to harassment of innocent civilians by the government agencies and very high pressure on the judiciary to dispose-off the cases with limited and redundant laws. For example, Dramatic Performance Act, 1876.
2. The inefficiency of Judiciary: The system takes years to bring justice and has ceased to deter criminals. Furthermore, there is no cooperation between the judiciary, prosecutors and the police. Many of the guilty go scot-free while the innocent remain on undertrial. According to the NCRB data, about 67.2% of the total prison population consists of undertrial prisoners.
3. Weak Investigation and Evidence Collection: Procedural lapses, non-preservation of evidence, and poor inter-agency coordination often derail prosecutions. Witness protection remains weak, with intimidation and hostility undermining the integrity of trials.
4. The complexity of crime: The number of crimes has increased rapidly in recent times and the nature of crimes is also increasingly becoming more complex due to technological growth and innovation. India’s criminal justice system is not encompassing the new era’s novel crimes. Inefficient investigation procedures have led to a haphazard investigation of crimes and delayed justice. Increase in cyber-crimes, fake news, mob-lynching etc. are some complex crimes.
5. Access to justice: The rich and the powerful are hardly convicted even for serious crimes. The ever-growing connection between politics and crimes is making justice of the poor and the marginalized society highly difficult.
6. Lack of public confidence: In the current times, the civilians have stopped relying on the CJS as it is expensive, complicated, inefficient and has long-winded procedures. This has led to current social problems like mob lynching.

What have been various initiatives to improve the Criminal Justice System?

Legislative Reforms:

1. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023: This replaces the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It aims to decolonize the penal code, introduce new provisions for contemporary crimes like mob lynching and organized crime, and consolidate scattered sections.
2. Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023: This replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). It introduces strict deadlines for investigations, mandates forensic examinations for serious crimes, and promotes the use of digital evidence.
3. Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023: This replaces the Indian Evidence Act. It formally recognizes electronic and digital records as evidence, modernizing the rules of evidence to align with the digital age. 

Judicial Reforms:

1. Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS): This project aims to integrate the five pillars of the criminal justice system—police, courts, prisons, forensic labs, and prosecution—through a single digital platform. This reduces delays and human errors caused by manual record-keeping.
2. e-Courts Project: This initiative focuses on the computerization of courts. It includes the digitization of case records, online filing of petitions, and live streaming of court proceedings to enhance transparency and accessibility.
3. Fast-Track Courts: Established to handle specific categories of cases, such as those involving sexual offenses against children (POCSO Act) and other serious crimes, to ensure speedy disposal.

Prosecution Reforms:

1. Witness Protection Scheme: This scheme provides security to witnesses and their families to prevent intimidation and ensure they can testify without fear, thereby strengthening the prosecution’s case.
2. Digital Evidence: The legal system now officially recognizes digital records and mandates audio-video recording of search/seizure and other proceedings.
3. National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS): Adoption of digital forensic databases and evidence management systems for improved conviction rates.
4. Mandatory Forensics for Serious Crimes: More reliance on scientific investigation, DNA and fingerprint matching, and regional forensic labs.

Police & Prison Reforms:

1. Strict Timelines for Police Investigation: The new laws require police to complete investigations within 90 days, with similar deadlines for charge-sheet filing and trial framing, addressing delays and case backlog. This makes the process transparent and time-bound, ensuring speedier justice delivery.
2. Prison Reforms: Initiatives are ongoing to improve prison conditions, and focus on the rehabilitation and reformation of prisoners through education, vocational training, and counseling.

What can be the way forward?

1. Strengthen Implementation of New Laws: The new codes (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam) specify strict deadlines for investigation, chargesheet filing, and judgments. Ensuring compliance, backed by adequate staffing and infrastructure upgrades, is crucial for reducing delays and case backlog.
2. Police Reforms:
   • Separate Investigation and Law & Order: A long-standing recommendation is to separate the police’s investigative and law and order functions. This would allow a specialized team to focus solely on investigations, leading to higher quality and more timely outcomes.
   • Police Accountability: Political interference and a lack of accountability undermine the police’s independence. Establishing State Security Commissions and transparent appointment processes with fixed tenures for police officials can help curb external influence.
3. Prison reforms: Reforming the property based bail system, provision of proper legal support to remove problem of undertrials, improvement of prison conditions is needed. Thus, India needs to reform its archaic system to incorporate more efficient practices like restorative justice, plea bargaining, etc. that will ensure a more robust criminal justice system.
4. Widen Digital Infrastructure: Expand the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) and e-courts, ensuring all police stations and courts have reliable internet, equipment, and digital training.
5. Build Institutional Capacity: Modernize courtrooms, police stations, forensic labs, and prisons to support technology adoption and humane jail conditions.
6. Make Justice System Victim centric: The system should be victim centric to ensure that the victims get justice. The victim should get a chance to put forth his case and quick completion of trials is needed to ensure that they do not lose faith in the system. Fixing responsibility quickly and transparently will maximise the sense of justice to the victim.
7. Malimath committee’s recommendations: Malimath committee has recommended many reforms which need to be implemented.

Conclusion:
Criminal Justice System in India is currently in a state of uncertainty and is highly unpopular due to its inefficiency. Clearly, the reforms in India’s Criminal Justice System are a need of the hour. The reforms should not only make CJS more efficient but also be sensitive to both the innocent and the needs of the law enforcing officers.