The real crime unless criminal codes are reformed the justice system will remain overwhelmed

The real crime unless criminal codes are reformed the justice system will remain overwhelmed

NCRB’s latest Crime in India report for 2021 is another iteration of the dismal story of justice delivery. A rise in serious crimes hasn’t been accompanied by proportionate systemic upgrades. From 2020 to 2021, kidnapping and abduction cases increased 20% and crimes against women, children and senior citizens increased 15%, 16% and 5% respectively. True, statistics cannot tell us if we are living in more unsafe times or whether crime recording has improved, or, perhaps most likely, a combination of the two. But statistics clearly show the need for more and better-trained police and judges.

Nearly 20% of sanctioned policing posts are vacant according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development. Yes, pendency burden for cops is much less than that for courts. But by yardsticks like conviction rates in murder, sexual offences, rioting and kidnapping, police come off very poorly. Conviction rate is just 28% in rape and 42% in murder cases.

But the real scandal is the slow legal process. Of 1.85 lakh rape cases pending trial in 2021, courts could dispose of just 12,000 cases against 26,000 sent for trial during the year. Matters are not helped by silly or questionable laws leading to thousands of cases. Against just 47,000 cases of disobedience to civil servants pending trial until 2019, violation of Covid-related social distancing norms prompted a deluge of such cases. Courts disposed of 4 lakh cases in 2020 and 2021, but another 5 lakh are pending trial. Governments must withdraw all these cases. Similarly, 26 lakh prohibition cases pending trial in 2019 have mushroomedto 34 lakh by 2021 – this category alone accounts for 10% of all pending criminal cases in India. There are also thousands of cases relating to possession of small amounts of marijuana. Prosecuting and investigating all these small offences, all of them owing their existence to laws that should be reformed, clogs up the criminal justice system. Politicians need to recognise this and undertake a serious review of criminal codes, just as many other democracies have.