Laws for new criminal justice system will be passed soon: Home Minister

Hyderabad: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that three Bills to replace The Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act will be passed soon heralding a new criminal justice system in the country.

He said that the Bills amending the three British-era laws were tabled in Parliament and the Standing Committee on Home Affairs is examining them.

“They will be passed soon and this will mark the beginning of new criminal justice system,” the Home Minister said while addressing the passing out parade of 75th RR batch of the Indian Police Service (IPS) probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Hyderabad.

“By repealing British-era laws, India will be entering a new era with confidence, new hopes and aspirations,” he said.

He stated that while the British-era laws were aimed at protecting the administration, new laws will safeguard the rights of people and defeat forces which come in the way of providing these rights.

The Home Minister said the new laws have redefined terrorism and organised crime and made provisions to control inter-state gangs. Emphasis has been laid on use of technology to digitize investigation and maintain a charge sheet timeline.

He claimed that during the last nine years, the government has succeeded in improving the law and order situation in three hotspots — Northeast, Left wing extremism affected states and Jammu & Kashmir. From 2004 to 2014, these three hotspots had witnessed 33,200 violent incidents and this has been reduced to 12,000. There was a decline of 63 per cent in violent incidents and 73 per cent in deaths.

Shah said the government adopted a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism and now the country is moving towards zero tolerance strategy and zero tolerance action.

He said while the police succeeded in controlling terrorism, Left-wing extremism and ethnic violence during the last 10 years, the challenges have not come to an end.

“Organised crime, cyber crime, inter-state and international financial crime and inter-state gangs are new challenges before us. We also have to fight narcotics smuggling, crypto currency, hawala transactions and counterfeit currency which weaken the country’s economy,” he said.

He underlined the need to go beyond reactive and responsive policing to preventive, predictive and proactive policing.

He advised the IPS probationers to understand the spirit of the Constitution and be empathetic towards the common man. He said the IPS probationers who completed the basic training at the Academy will have a key role to play when the new criminal justice system comes into force.

The Home Minister said the officials from this batch would be in key positions of policing when the country would be celebrating the centenary of its Independence and would be leading the world in various fields.

He said technology will have an important role to play in strengthening internal security. Keeping this in mind, the government started the Police Technology Mission.

A total 175 officer trainees, including 155 IPS officer trainees and 20 officer trainees from Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Mauritius participated in the Dikshant Parade.

The batch included 34 women officers. There were 32 IPS officer trainees while two others were foreign officer trainees.

SVPNPA Director Amit Garg said among foreign officer trainees, six officers are from Bhutan, five from Maldives, five from Nepal and four from Mauritius Police.