Date: 17/04/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Judiciary; Powers, Functions and Responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies; Transparency & Accountability, Reforms in the Judicial and Criminal Justice System.

Key Phrases: Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), National Crime Record Bureau, Supreme Court, Judicial Accountability, National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Context:

• Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) e-prosecution portal has added a new feature that will fix accountability of government lawyers.
  • It will ensure timely disposal of criminal cases.

Key Highlights:

• For this, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) is in the process of integrating the module directly with the e-courts.
  • If a public prosecutor demands adjournment, the system generates alerts.
  • The issue will be flagged to the concerned stakeholders immediately.
  • The senior officers will be alerted and measures can be taken that the trial is not delayed.
• The Home Ministry has also been emphasizing investigations based on forensics to improve the conviction rate.
  • Some changes are being considered including making the collection of forensic evidence compulsory in crime cases punishable by more than six years in prison.
• The government is also working to overhaul the British-era Indian Penal Code.
• The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 amended Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide for completion of investigation in rape cases within two months.

What is ICJS?

• Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) is a common platform for information exchange and analytics of all the pillars of the criminal justice system comprising Police, Forensics, Prosecution, Courts Prisons.
• Invested under the CCTNS project of the MHA, the ICJS enables a nation wide search on police, prisons & courts databases across all States/ UTs in the country. Consumption of data between pillars is also being enabled.
• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is responsible for the implementation of the project in association with National Informatics Center (NIC).
  • The project is being implemented in collaboration with the States and Union Territories.
• The module has been implemented in 751 prosecution districts, and software configuration for the remaining 153 districts is under progress.
• Earlier, the main pillars of the ICJS, including the e-police, e-courts, e-jails, e-forensics and e-prosecution were developed independently in the form of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS).
  • This system connects more than 16,000 police stations across the country and has a database of 28.98 crore police records that can only be accessed by law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.
• The objective of ICJS is to reduce errors and time taken in sharing of necessary information between the pillars, which often lead to larger challenges like longer duration of trials, poorer convictions, transit losses of documents etc.
• Some other critical benefits arising out of the ICJS ecosystem are usable analytics products like the National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO) to identify & track repeat and habitual sexual offenders.
  • The NDSO has become an integral part of pre-employment character & antecedent verifications, thereby reducing the opportunity for sexual crimes in several sensitive jobs since its launch in September 2018.
• Phase-I of the ICJS project (2018-2022) :
  • Individual IT systems have been implemented and stabilized; also search of records has been enabled on these systems.
• Phase-II of the ICJS project (2022-23 to 2025-26) :
  • The system is being built on the principle of ‘one data one entry’ whereby data is entered only once in one pillar and the same is then available in all other pillars without the need to re-enter the data in each pillar.

Way Forward:

• Speedy justice is not only our fundamental right but also a prerequisite for maintaining the rule of law and delivering good governance.
• With the aid of the ICJS platform, the metadata of FIR and charge sheet can be accessed by all the High Courts and subordinate courts.
  • Documents like FIR, case diary and charge sheet are uploaded by police in PDF format for utilization by the courts.
• The ICJS platform is an effective tool for case and court management, as all the relevant information of a case will be available in real-time for use by the courts.
• Compliance of judicial orders and summons can also be achieved expeditiously, ensuring effective time management.

Conclusion:

• The ICJS is going to be a milestone to enhance the productivity of the criminal justice system both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What is the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS)? How will it be useful in enhancing the productivity of the criminal justice system? (150 Words).