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New Delhi, Nov 2 (IANS) Enactment of new Penal Codes a year ago, as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Shaksha Sanhita for replacing colonial era laws, has been a step in the right direction.
Its objective was to provide a modern set of laws, move towards citizen-centric justice and most importantly, leverage technology to ensure speedy investigation and conviction. Amidst his busy schedule on matters of governance and internal security, Union Home Minister Amit Shah fulfilled the most basic obligation of providing easy access to our legal system, besides tackling the contemporary challenges of cyber crime, terrorism and crimes against women and children.
Prime Minister Modi should be congratulated for prioritizing legal reforms in a manner that placed the common citizen at the center of governance by mandating a ‘citizen first’ and ‘ease of access’ approach in the justice sector.
Democracy is ‘for the people’, but a democratic state must also have a strong commitment to protecting the sovereignty, security and economic progress of the country against potential attacks by adversaries. We live in an era of ‘proxy wars’ in which terrorism, externally instigated insurgency and internal conflicts generated by agent provocateurs can be used as tools – requiring a new level of awareness on the part of the police about the importance of public cooperation for crime control.
To achieve this goal, police reforms are as important as amendments in laws, especially in a situation where policing is a state subject which makes it more vulnerable to political influences.
The provisions relating to the use of technology and forensics are perhaps the most important part of the new laws. It has been made mandatory for forensic experts to visit crime scenes and collect evidence in serious crimes punishable with jail of one year or more. Also, the process of collecting evidence at the crime scene will be compulsorily videographed to prevent tampering of evidence. Additionally, summons can now be sent electronically, which will speed up the legal process, reduce paperwork and ensure effective communication between all parties involved.
Furthermore, by conducting all legal proceedings electronically as per the provision of the new laws, the judicial process has been made more convenient for victims and witnesses and has given less leeway for the accused.
Streamlining and speeding up the entire legal process is a timely response to a situation where the justice system was seriously discredited due to unexplained delays. The new laws encourage the use of the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) and other biometric technologies such as DNA matching in POCSO cases, to ensure that criminals are no longer able to exploit loopholes in the processes – this was expected to significantly increase conviction rates.
Home Minister Amit Shah has rightly said that legal reforms will make the judicial process simpler, more consistent and transparent, making it cheaper, accessible and accessible. Laws will have to be developed to deal with new criminal trends. Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled deepfakes and misinformation on social media have forced the government to amend Information Technology (IT) rules to prevent criminal misuse of this medium.
The new laws promise speedy and fair resolution of cases and provide that investigations must be completed in 90 days in most cases, leaving a period of 14 days for any preliminary investigation. The victim and the accused will have to provide all the documents within 14 days.
There is a period of 60 days for framing charges or filing a ‘discharge’ application. After filing of charges, the court should pronounce the verdict within a maximum of 45 days after the conclusion of arguments, giving a maximum of two adjournments, to avoid unnecessary delays and ensure ‘timely’ justice.
The amended Penal Code has given priority to investigation of crimes against women and children, ensuring completion of investigation within two months of registering information. Crimes against women and children have been given priority over all other crimes, and age difference in cases of gang rape of minors above 16 years of age and below 12 years has been eliminated.
Now, gang rape of a minor under 18 years of age can result in life imprisonment or death penalty, which should act as a more effective deterrent. To provide greater protection to women and bring transparency in the investigation, the statement of the victim will be recorded through audio-visual medium in the presence of a woman by the police or in person by a woman magistrate and in her absence by a male magistrate.
No woman will be examined at any place other than her place of residence. Thus the sensitivities of a woman or girl have been fully respected, and this must be considered a great improvement in view of the outrages to which the investigation was formerly allowed. It is to be noted that the new provisions of the law direct the doctors to send the medical report of the rape victim to the investigating officer (IO) within a week.
The new codes provide for very stringent penalties for terrorist acts, cyber crimes and organized crime syndicates. Contemporary increasing crimes have been dealt with at a special level. Terrorism is a means of ‘proxy war’, cyber crime is now an effective tool to destabilize a country and crime syndicates are operating at national and international levels to make material gains.
BNS defines terrorism as an act intended or likely to endanger national unity, integrity and security, intimidate or threaten authorities and destroy public property – making it punishable by death or life imprisonment. The new law gives the police much greater discretion in interpreting a terrorist act, and therefore supervision by senior officers should be considered particularly important and emphasized.
Organized crime is seen as sustained illegal activity such as kidnapping, extortion and contract killing, which has serious consequences. Smuggling of people, drugs, illicit goods or weapons, carried out by a member of a crime syndicate, resorting to violence, intimidation or coercion to obtain material gain, falls under the category of organized crime.
The new code treats cyber crimes committed by such syndicates as a separate offense and provides for very stringent punishment. The transformative character of these laws is beginning to have an impact at the grassroots level. Strict timelines for investigation, chargesheet and judgments ensure speedy and effective justice delivery. By prioritizing victim-centric provisions like Zero FIR and including a separate chapter on crimes against women and children, the laws set a standard of transparency and accessibility and empower citizens to a new degree.
In contrast to the punitive focus of earlier laws, the new penal code framework adopts a restorative approach and strikes a balance between accountability and rehabilitation.
Community service has been introduced for minor crimes, which will help in preventing re-offenses and increase awareness of social responsibility among young offenders. About 15 lakh policemen and 42,000 jail personnel have been trained in the new laws, and others associated with the judicial system are being oriented.
A transformational change has been attempted to create transparency and efficiency in the judicial system with special reference to the role of police in ensuring citizen-centric justice. This is, perhaps, the most difficult part, as the police station was still steeped in the practices of the colonial period. Public awareness is important for the success of reformed laws.
The law and order system is in the hands of the state governments, who have to fulfill their responsibility of appointing the right kind of station house officers (SHOs), enhancing the forensic science infrastructure and qualitatively improving the supervisory role of senior police officers to ensure that the new laws are implemented in letter and spirit.
(The author is a former director of the Intelligence Bureau)
–IANS
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