Interoperable Criminal Justice System In India

Introduction of Interoperable Criminal Justice System In India

Interoperable Criminal Justice System in India is an attempt to integrate all pillars of justice to make the justice delivery system speedy and transparent. However, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval to the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the extension of the Crime and Criminals Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project and has decided to implement Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) by integrating CCTNS with E-Courts. Although ICJS is a national platform for enabling the integration of the main IT system used for the delivery of Criminal Justice in the country. It seeks to integrate the five pillars of the system viz Police (through Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems), e-Forensics for Forensic Labs, e-Courts for Courts, e-Prosecution for Public Prosecutors, and e-Prisons for Prisons. The ICJS system would be made available through a dedicated and secure cloud-based infrastructure with high-speed connectivity. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be responsible for the implementation of the project in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The project will be implemented in collaboration with the States and Union Territories.

MHA included the ICJS project while submitting the proposal for an extension of the CCTNS project to the Cabinet Committee on Economics Affairs (CCEA) in the year 2015. The CCEA approved the MHA proposal for the extension of the CCTNS project till March 2018 with budgetary provision to extend the operation & Maintenance of the project till March 2022.

Major new components included as part of the revamped project are Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), Citizen Portal having interfaces with various e-Governance projects like Aadhaar, National Population Register, Vaahan Project of the Ministry of Surface Transport, National Emergency Response System Project, etc.

Purpose of Interoperable Criminal Justice System In India

In the first instance, ICJS aims to integrate the CCTNS project with the e-courts and e-prisons databases, and with the other pillars of the criminal justice system—forensics, prosecution, juvenile homes, and a nationwide fingerprint database of criminals in a phased manner. The integration will be achieved by providing access to the Judiciary, Police, and Prisons through a desktop dashboard to facilitate expeditious investigations and a robust search facility for retrieving criminal data from the pillars of the justice delivery system.

Interoperable Criminal Justice System In India

Objective of Interoperable Criminal Justice System In India

1. Interoperability of data across all Pillars of the Criminal Justice System: To build an effective criminal justice system across the country, data across all pillars of criminal justice must be interoperable and accessible across all the It pillars.

2. National Crime & Criminal Data Search across all Pillars: It is also essential that the crime & criminal data is available at a centralized/ national application for search across data from all pillars using key identify fields such as FIR, Case No, Prison ID, etc. This shall help in tracing a record from right from registering FIR against suspects to imprisonment of convicts till the imprisonment period involving court case details, trials/ judgments, prosecution & forensics information.

3. MIS Dashboard and Reporting of FIR/Case/ Case pendency/ Prisons/ Prisoner status based information for an investigation, search, case history, judgments provided, and other details about criminal justice required from time to time.

4. Data Analytics for Forecasting/ Predictive Trends in Crimes reported region-wise, category-wise, and basis other parameters for effective management & control of crimes in the future.

5. Seamless data sharing across all pillars through a common Network Connectivity: All sites must be connected through a common, dedicated, high-speed, robust & reliable network for seamless exchange & interoperability of data between all pillars of ICJS such as crime & criminal related data such as FIR information, Court case data with photographic/video-graphic & documentary shreds of evidence, video recordings of court proceedings, and for enabling court proceedings over video conferences for faster delivery of justice in the country.

6. By providing a robust network connectivity solution to the CCTNS/ ICJS project, the effectiveness of the existing criminal justice system will be enhanced. The network will enable the ICJS to leverage seamless inter-operability of crime and criminal data, an appearance by hard-core convicts, in the court proceedings through video-conferencing, speedy disposal of court cases, provision of a variety of citizen services, better law enforcement, speedy verification of character & antecedents of applicants for the issue of passport, visa, etc.

Recently, the central government approved the implementation of Phase II of the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) project by the Ministry of Home Affairs. It has been approved at a total cost of Rs 3,375 crore during the period from 2022-23 to 2025-26. Earlier in 2018, a Supreme Court panel had launched a pilot project in Telangana’s Warangal district to integrate two crucial pillars of the criminal justice delivery system- the courts and police stations.

Interoperable Criminal Justice System Project Components and it’s features:

The major component of ICJS includes:

  • Police,
  • Court,
  • Prison,
  • Forensic,
  • Fingerprints, and,
  • Prosecution.
ICJS

a. Police: The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & System (CCTNS) has been implemented by all State/UT Police for the day-to-day functioning of policing system right from the Police Station to the Director General of the Police. The system aims to capture all the details about suspects/accused mainly in 7 major Integrated Investigation Forms (IIF). There are 24 IIF forms in all for capturing information.

b. Prison: Presently the e-Prison developed by NIC is deployed at major Prison in 24 States (about 700 prisons on board) and 4 States (namely Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Haryana) are using locally developed IT systems for their day-to-day functioning of the Prison. The e-Prisons Suite is a cloud-based application software with an easy-to-use graphical interface and embedded with comprehensive security features.

c. Court: All districts and Taluka Courts are using Court Information System (CIS) for their everyday functioning. The High Courts are using a different type of S/W in different courts. However, recent efforts were made to roll out uniform S/W e-Court across all the High Court in the country. The following are the major modules in CIS:

i. To capture FIR detail

ii. Case filing Module-Initiates after receipt of the charge sheet.

iii. Case Allocation Module-Used for allocating the judge and first hearing date.

iv. Update hearing date-This module facilitates updating hearing dates.

v. Under Trail Prison (UTP) Module-This module handles the issue related to judicial custody, police custody, bail, parole, surety details, etc.

vi. Final Disposal Module-This module allows the entry/upload of details of the quantum of punishment etc.

d. Forensic: Most of the states in India have Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL) while some of them have also established Regional and District Forensic Science Laboratories. Apart from this, there are seven Central Forensic Science Laboratories (CFSL) in India (Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, New Delhi, Guwahati, Bhopal & Pune). However, none of the offices has a uniform central application to capture and share information with ICJS. The following are the key feature of the proposed software:

i. Case Registration,

ii. Pre-Examination,

iii. Post-examination entry,

iv. Report Upload,

v. Court Summons / Attendance Entry,

vi. Availability Details,

vii. Reports.

e. Prosecution: Ideally, the department of Prosecution is headed by the Directorate of Prosecution (DoP), at the state level to exercise supervision and scrutiny of work relating to various prosecution agencies at Sessions and Asst. Sessions level except at the High Court level. Public Prosecutor is responsible for the supervision of work conducted by Additional Public Prosecutors in the Sessions Courts. Chief Prosecutors supervise the work conducted by Assistant Public Prosecutors in the Court of Metropolitan Magistrates, where the Asst. Public Prosecutor officers scrutinize charge sheets and submit discharge/acquittal. Suitable generic software to address the requirement of the prosecution department is proposed to be developed under the ICJS project. The key feature of the proposed software are as follows:

i. Data availability from ICJS using web services to pull details about FIR, Police station List, District Courts List, CNR, Court Case Details, etc.

ii. Online recording of Legal Opinions for FIR & General Diary cases.

iii. Online availability of PP/APP Profile

iv. Online recording of Scrutiny of the Draft charge sheet.

v. Online recording of charge sheet receipts, opinions, and approval.

vi. Case Registration with provision to capture Complainant/ Petitioner, Respondent/Accused details.

vii. Online updating of Case/ Trial Proceedings, for effective monitoring.

viii. Online Updating of Case Disposal Status with the type of disposal for analysis.

ix. Case Discharge/Acquittal

x. Digitizing the relevant documents, Charge sheet, Legal Opinion, etc.

xi. Reports

xii. Queries

f. Fingerprint: Fingerprint biometrics continues to be the most accepted and reliable biometric tool for establishing the identity of person. Fingerprints continued to be the strongest pillar of authenticity. At present Central Finger Print Bureau (CFPB) of NCRB has a collection of over 12 Lakhs 10-digit FP slips (in digitized form) of convicted persons in the Automated Finger Print Identification System. This AFIS is being upgraded for creating a National Level database of Fingerprints. This database would be available for all States/UTs for collecting and sharing Fingerprints. There are 29 State Finger Print Bureau in the country in addition to the Central Finger Print Bureau in New Delhi. Currently, the Fingerprint database has 31 field, which include name, alias, father name, address, FIR number, etc. As per the LAW, Fingerprints can be taken only for certain offenses. Once the new AFIS is implemented all digitized Fingerprints of all States/UTs would be available in the National Database. All physical fingerprints currently not digitized would also be digitized in a phased manner.

Significance of Interoperable Criminal Justice System

Quick data transfer among different pillars of the criminal justice system, will not only enhance transparency but also reduce processing time.

Enable National level crime analytics to be published at an increased frequency, which will help the policymakers as well as lawmakers in taking appropriate and timely action.

Enable pan-India criminal/accused name search in the regional language for improved inter-state tracking of criminal movement.

About The Author

Manisha Varsani is an Independent Researcher and Forensic Psychologist, Currently working as a junior adjunct faculty at Sherlock Institute of Forensic Science.

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