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Criminal law and justice system in India:- Challenges and Criticism

Gousiya Qadri

Law student

Aligarh Muslim University

LEGAL HOUSE LAW JOURNAL -  ISSN NO. - 3048-779X

ISSUE - I Volume - III

ARTICLE

Criminal Law and Justice system In India:- Challenges and Criticism
~ Gousiya Qadri
2nd year, Law student at Aligarh Muslim University



Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………03
What is Criminal Law?........................................................................................04-07
What is Justice system?.......................................................................................08
Justice system in India………………………….……………………………...09-10
Challenges and Criticism………………………………………………………11-16
Suggestive Reforms…………..………………………………………………..17-19
References……………………………………………………………………..20


Abstract
This article intends to throw some light on the criminal laws and the Justice system, more particularly in India. We have very extensive criminal laws in our country, proposed for serving justice to the citizens. In India, we have 3 criminal laws read and interpreted together for serving justice and punish criminals. But in reality, the application of criminal laws and the Justice system have a huge gap between them. In this article, we’ll be focusing on the criminal and justice system of India, the challenges and criticism it face due to various reasons. Those reasons will be discussed, followed up by some suggestive reforms.

WHAT IS CRIMINAL LAW?
When we hear about “ Criminal law”, we from the common sense and logic, can infer that it means some laws that deals with the crimes and criminals. That is the very basic but not complete definition of criminal law. This is true that criminal Law deals with crimes and criminals but also it states that how the society should deal with the crime and criminals and the punishment to be awarded.

The main purpose of these laws is to deter crimes and reform criminals to prevent further crimes in the society. It defines how individuals should behave in the society and defines their code of conduct. It applies to acts and omissions violating the laws and are harmful and endangering to people and property and are against the laws governing the behaviour of people in the society.

These laws also defines the processes for trials in which the prosecution proves the acts reus (wrongful act) and mens rea (guilty mind) beyond a reasonable doubt, rules of evidence, punishment provisions etc.

The Indian Criminal Laws are codified laws falling under the Concurrent List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India and are divided into 3 different parts, covering different aspects of it. These are:-
Indian Penal Code, 1860 :- The Indian Penal Code or IPC was the official criminal code of India, consisting of 23 chapters, sub-divided into 511 sections which deals with all the criminal acts, offences to be charged with and the punishment to be awarded for the offence.
In order to be liable under IPC, one must have done the acts reus along with the mens rea.

It deals with offences of all nature, for e.g. public offences, rape, murder, air force offences, technology based offences, air force offences etc. and extends to the whole of Indian territory and the punishment under the IPC can be extended to both the offences committed in India as well as beyond the territory of India, or on any ship or aircraft registered within India.

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973:- The code of criminal procedure or the CrPC is a set of laws stating how the police machinery should function. It contains 484 sections, 37 chapters, 2 schedules and 56 forms. It establishes the procedures for :-
i.Filing the complaint or FIR.
ii.Investigation.
iii.Apprehension of suspects.
iv.Gathering evidences.
v.Determining the guilt or innocence.
vi.Punishment to be awarded.
vii.Imposition of penalties.
viii.Dealing with public nuisances.
ix.Prevention of offences.
x.Maintaining social welfare.

It also establishes the hierarchy of courts and classifies the offences as bailable, non-bailable, cognizable and non-cognizable offences.


The Indian Evidence Act, 1872:- Set of laws governing the rules of evidence in India. It lays down the rules for the protection and admissibility of evidence in courts, defines what constitutes evidence and sets out the criteria for weighing and evaluating the evidences.

It has 11 chapters and 167 sections and the whole act is divided into 3 major parts:-
i.Deals with the relevance of facts and the admissibility of evidence.
ii.Deals with proof of facts, including the burden of proof and the standard of proof.
iii.Deals with the production and effect of evidence.

These laws were in function since colonial times and has played the role of spine in serving justice to the people of India against crimes by awarding punishment to the guilty and providing penalties if needed, in certain cases. But these laws had become too remote for this modern and contemporary India and also there were various complexities and issues in the laws, especially in relation to modern and contemporary topics, like same-sex marriage, sedition etc and hence there was a need for reforms in the laws.

These required reforms are brought in the new set of laws and the gaps and the shortcomings of the previous laws are settled in these new set of laws. In June 2024, the old laws were replaced by the new laws, named as follows:-
Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 in place of the Indian Penal Code.
Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in place of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 in place of the Indian Evidence Act.

These new criminal laws offer a more broader and wider view on the offences, more clarified definitions and the inclusion of more newer and contemporary terms like, Electronic Evidence. These laws address deep rooted structural barriers and provides a more holistic approach by streamlining the process for e.g. through audio-video recordings of the search and seizure .


WHAT IS JUSTICE SYSTEM?

The Justice system consists of various agencies, establishments and institutions tasked with the administration and enforcement of laws. It holds the responsibility of resolving conflicts related to laws governing society, uphold the rule of law and serves justice.

The primary goal is to maintain social order, protect individual rights, and ensure accountability for unlawful actions. It prevents the abuse of power and corrupt practices and ensure that people are treated fairly and impartially by the law. It also ensures that the accused faces the consequences of their actions and the accuser gets compensation for the wrong or injustices faced by him.

Also the term, “Justice system” shouldn’t be confused with the term, “Judicial system”, as the latter consists narrowly of the hierarchy of courts, authorised by the Constitution of India, which is as follows:-
The Supreme Court of India under the article 124 of the Indian constitution.
State courts, authorised by the article 214 of the constitution, which consists of The High courts in all states, District Courts, Trial courts etc.
While, the “Justice system”, consists all the institutions that are responsible for making, amending, repealing or enforcing the laws and are important in serving justice, i.e., The Legislative, The Judiciary and The Executive.


JUSTICE SYSTEM IN INDIA
The Indian Justice system is very vast and complex consisting of various institutions, values, ideas and principles to ensure the protection and integrity of people’s rights and Justice, but is still based on a single document, very crucial for it’s survival i.e., The constitution of India to prevent any conflicts if any confusion or question arises.

The Justice system of India have envisaged various ideas and methods to save Justice at any cost. Some of these are as follows:-

One of the most oldest legal system with roots dwelled in the ancient traditions and cultures and the colonial era common law system.
Deeply rooted in the Constitution of India, which is the Supreme law of the land and derives it’s authority from that only.
Though the justice system follows only a common law system, it also accommodates various religion-based laws in the shads of personal laws to ensure justice that is accepted by all.
All the 3 organs of the government are responsible and tasked on the serving of justice by playing different yet important roles.
Hierarchy of courts is devised for proper administration and serving of justice to all. Also, there are some special courts and tribunals establishes at different levels and areas for efficient dispute resolution, such as, Family courts, Consumer courts, Labour Tribunals etc.
Judiciary is kept independent from the legislative and Executive to ensure impartiality.
Transparency in appointment of judges, PM, president and other higher authorities.
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) were introduced to file petitions in courts in matters of Public Interest. It can be filed by citizen or organisation.
Provides some basic fundamental rights to citizens, which can’t be infringed and are protected by law. Also, the Directive Principles of State Policy are some basic duties assigned to the government for the Public welfare.
Various Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms like Lok Adaalats or Out of court Settlement etc are also helpful in serving justice faster, less formal and affordable.
The Judicial activism in interpretating laws to prevent any misinterpretation by the legislature or Executive helps in serving better justice in matters of environment or of Public importance.
Under the articles 32 and 226 of the Indian constitution, citizens can directly approach the SC or the High courts for the enforcement of their fundamental rights and remedies like the writ petitions provide more safety to the Justice and protection of citizens.
To be compatible with the contemporary requirements of the developing and technically advanced society, reforms like the E-courts, online Filing of cases and virtual hearing are introduced.

CHALLENGES AND CRITICISM

As we already have gone through the qualities and characteristics of our criminal and justice system, we saw that how well our constitution and Criminal and Justice system works together and provides solutions and remedies for every dispute, infringement, wrong doing or injustice in every scenario. But still, there’s so much injustice and crime in our society. People don’t get Justice easily or if they get it then it’s too late and there’s a maxim, “Justice delayed is Justice denied” which means that if a remedy isn’t provided in a timely manner, then it doesn’t have any effect. People avoid going to courts and consider it as troublesome. Instead of resolving their dispute, their money, repute and time will be wasted is the typical image of courts in public’s mind. Many a times subjected to certain circumstances or reasons, justice isn’t served properly.
Misuse of laws and provisions meant for the protection results in injustice to the real victims and the influential people uses laws and provisions to escape from facing the consequences of their actions. All theses things have resulted into high injustice and suffering to victims and they become despair of justice. Some of these complications in the system are listed below:-

Our criminal system still follows colonial era principles, laws and provisions and the criminal laws are framed in colonial frameworks. These laws are incapable of addressing contemporary societal needs. Our society has evolved a lot since colonial era and several new issues has been raised and several old issues needs new methods to be resolved.

Various terms and definitions have become outdated and many provisions need reinterpretation. Several new terms should be added.

Due to shortage of judges, infrastructure and legal professionals, there’s a high no. of pending cases, which leads to delayed justice to the victims. Many a times it has been observes that the victims are served judges after years of trials and dates and sometimes even the accused or accuser dies but the case still goes on. This much time lapse in serving justice renders it as ineffective.
Safdar Hashmi murder case:- In this case, Safdar Hashmi along with another politician were murdered as a consequence of a political rivalry. The accused were punished after 14 years. Till this decision was made, 2 out of the 12 accused were already dead.
This much delay in serving justice gives no satisfaction or justice to the victims.

Overburdened police and lack of proper and modern tools and training leads to poor investigation. The prisons are crowded due to delays in hearings and trials which violates the human rights. This is clear failure of our criminal system as even the prisoners has some rights and also no one is considered as guilty until proven, and our criminal system is against punishing or suffering to any innocent.

Miscarriage of justice happens when someone is convicted wrongfully for the wrongful actions that he/she hasn’t committed. Also, sometimes, the guilty doesn’t get enough or even a little bit of punishment for his wrongdoing.
Many a times, strict adherence to the provisos also lead to miscarriage of justice.
Nirbhaya rape case:- We all are very well aware of the brutal rape case in Delhi occurred on 16 Dec 2012 with a 22 year old girl. The brutalities and the horrific events other case are not hidden and it was evident from the victims that the accused deserves the harshest punishment of all times and the Public demanded for execution of all the 4 accused. The accused were granted death sentence oon10 september 2013. But, on the 13 March 2014, Delhi HC upheld the conviction. Finally, on 18 December 2019 the SC rejected the final appeals of the convicts and sentenced the execution.
Hence, we can see in this case also first, the time lapse is huge from 2012 to 2020, when the convicts were finally executed.
Also the Delhi HC, by upholding the execution of convicts has done the miscarriage of justice, which was corrected by the Supreme Court.

The image and perspective regarding courts, police and the Justice system isn’t very admirable in public’s mind. They consider going to courts and coming of police as disrespectful and that it’s very hectic, problematic and time and money consuming. Instead of considering the police and legal professionals as their helpers and problem solvers, and the Judiciary as their guardian of rights, they see them as danger and the police is considered as bribe takers and the lawyers are named as dacoits, who’ll end up taking all their money in the name of trials. And this is even the harsh reality as many incidents has been reported of corrupt police officers and the lawyers in real let the cases go on till they get their fee.
All this corruption and malpractices has eroded people’s trust from the Justice system of the country and people now consider handling or letting go of their matters instead of approaching to police or courts for help. But all this mistrust and malpractices should be stopped immediately to build an efficient justice system.

The increasing corruption in the Justice system is taking a toll over the Justice serving capabilities of the system. The increase in bribery is the major reason for corruption. The rich or influential people offer big amounts of money to the legal professionals or judges or the police to turn the case into their. Many a times, the legal professionals also by themselves charge hefty amounts even for the routine works. This way they get an escape from the consequences of their wrongdoing and the victim is left suffering and get no justice.

Various political leaders, businessman, celebrities etc. escape the consequences by offering huge sums of money and even threatening the victims and their families is also done. We all are evident of the fact that most of the politicians have some criminal background, still they manage to be part of the most important machineries of administration of the country. They support criminals and big mafia gangs for their own profit, risking the lives of ordinary public. Murders of rivalry or opposite party members, scams etc are the common tasks for them.

Although there are thousands of schemes, acts and yojanas for marginalised communities like, lower castes, womens, religious minorities, they are still facing discrimination in the society and are deprived of their basic rights and are often denied justice. They are still facing stigmas, harassment and oppression in various areas mostly in employment and education. They are unable to access or approach justice system for their compensation or reinforcement as the oppressors are either influential or powerful enough to stop them from approaching courts or even if they approach police or courts then they use their influence and monetary power to turn the case in their own favour.

If we look for womens, the dowry is still in trend, domestic abuse, discrimination in educational and professional fields, harassment, rapes are still very common in the society. Infact India is one of the countries having high rape rates and crime against womens.
Poor and minorities face oppression from the rich elite classes. Their hard earned money is usurped by the corrupt police officials, high taxes, thieves etc.
Religious enmities, riots and the provoking hatred against other religions by the politicians is nothing new in this country. People are often discriminated and oppressed on the basis of their religion. Even after various efforts of the constitution makers and inclusion of secularism principles, our country is still having religious riots at a regular basis. This is a huge failure of constitutional machinery. Daily news of assaults on minority community members is something very common and nothing is being done to stop this. Hate speeches by politicians is also considered as something minor. The new trend of demolishing every other mosques to find temples beneath them is something very ridiculous and non sense and the court giving them the permission to do so is something to be ponder over seriously, and that too when no temple is found beneath them, except in case or two. Isn’t it hurting sentiments of one community? Especially when we have the Places of worship Act, 1991, which stated that every worship place must retain and maintain their religious character as it existed on 15 August, 1947. This is complete contravention of the act and no one is taking this into consideration.

Supreme court’s decision is final and can only be reviewed by the SC itself. It has been observed that the decisions on the cases of similar nature have shown huge difference or completely opposite to the previous decisions. For e.g., Interpretation of article 13 was changed a lot by the Supreme court, until a final decision came.
In the case of Shankari Prasad Deo v. UOI , the SC held that constitutional amendments by the parliament under article 368 can’t be subjected to Judicial review, while in the case of Keshavnanda Bharti v. UOI , the SC held that any fundamental right can be amended by the parliament but the basic structure shouldn’t be changed.

This is just an example but there are various cases when the SC have changed it’s decisions a lot creating confusions as the courts follow the precedents set by the higher courts in previous cases. The interpretation is difficult and is adjustable according to the case circumstances, but changing the decisions by the apex court numerous times creates a lot of confusion.

SUGGESTIVE REFORMS

Since we have this much complications in our criminal system taking a toll on it’s efficiency, there’s a urgent need to take some reformation measures in order to increase the efficiency of our justice system and better justice serving to the public. Some of the suggestive reformative measures are as follows:-

Our justice system is rooted in colonial legacy and is quite outdated. To update this, some laws like that of sedition, which is quite debatable topic, unnatural sex offences etc, should be reformed. Various definitions should be updated, and the gender inclusive terms, Electronic offences and e-evidences, online court room hearing etc. should be included.

This step has been taken in recent by bringing into effect 3 new criminal laws, replacing the old ones. The 3 new Indian Criminal Laws are already discussed above in the article. These laws have included various new terms and definitions. Various steps have been taken in these laws to reform and upgrade the Justice system.

 The police departments are in a urgent need of modern tools and techniques. The candidates should be trained more advanced techniques and modernized weapons to increase their efficiency and the methods to deal with the criminals should also be updated to decrease the custodial deaths and rehabilitation of criminals and better evidence collection and investigation procedures and timely solving of cases.
There’s a huge backlog of pending cases in the courts due to shortage of legal, professionals and judges in the system. The huge number of vacancies in the system should be fulfilled to clear these backlogs. The selection procedure should be transparent based on the merit and seniority. Exams should be conducted properly and the scams and leaks in the Judicial or legal exams should be finished for impartial and proper appointment. Political influence or connections or bribery should be watched over so that impotent candidates shouldn’t get entry in the system. Also, the vacancies should be reported on a regular basis to the authorities.

The wrongful punishment to innocent people is a major disrespect to the constitution. Many a times, courts decide the cases in which they punish the innocent people. Prisoner’s late trials result in long custody periods which violates their basic rights. Taking years to serve justice is of no use. Hence, the judges should consider the facts and circumstances of case also along with the provisions. Investigation should be done properly and accordingly. The witnesses should be produced very carefully and also they should be investigated before presenting in the court.

Awareness should be spread regarding the laws and provisions amongst the general public so that they can reach out to the police or courts and their trust is restored in the Justice system. Increasing corruption rates are destroying the image of legal professionals and procedures. Bribery, scams and scandals, political influence and use of power in justice serving makes it difficult for people to trust the system. There should be strict laws for preventing them.

Only having the laws in books and knowing about them isn’t enough. Practical application and execution of laws by the appropriate bodies is mandatory for the survival of justice system. We have laws and acts for every community and every issue, still facing these issues is the result of improper or no execution of these laws. Only proper application of these laws will be enough to make the Justice system better.

REFERENCES
https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/criminal-justice-system-9

https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/new-criminal-laws-come-into-force

https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/criminal-justice-system-in-india/

https://www.animallaw.info/article/introduction-criminal-law-india

https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/code-of-criminal-procedure-crpc/

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/justice_system







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