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Centre looks to simplify laws, decriminalise minor offences
The government has been making a concerted effort to simplify the laws and increase the efficiency of the criminal justice system.
The Narendra Modi government plans to undertake a wide-ranging review of existing laws and decriminalize many” minor” offences, especially if there are alternative processes to deal with them, as it seeks to promote ease of doing business and decongest the justice system, according to senior functionaries aware of the development.
The government has been making a concerted effort to simplify the laws and increase the efficiency of the criminal justice system. As part of the exercise, the Modi government is seeking to embark on an exercise to decriminalize criminal offences that are deemed to be minor.
According to a person with knowledge of the of development, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba has on Monday instructed the secretaries of Union ministries and departments to undertake a “comprehensive review” of all the legislations under their purview to identify provisions that need to be decriminalized or wherein the punishment should be rationalised.
Gauba has told the secretaries that the exercise is aimed at decriminalizing minor offences with the aim of ensuring speedy resolution through compounding, a process that entails an entity accepting that it has committed an offence and seeks to be condoned.The move is aimed at preventing harassment of citizens, declogging the criminal justice system and also to promote ease of doing business.
Ministries have been asked to hold consultations with all stakeholders on laws which they believe can be decriminalized. The cabinet secretary, the top civil servant, has suggested that the exercise be completed within one month. The government policy think-tank, NITI Aayog, would also be providing support to different ministries to conduct the exercise, said the person cited above.
Gauba, it is learnt, has suggested that the secretary who is the top official in any ministry, supervise the entire exercise.The deliberations that various ministries hold will be shared with a committee of secretaries that will take decisions on which laws need to be decriminalised.
The ministries have been asked to provide a list of laws wherein penal provisions exist that can be decriminalized. The ministries have also been asked to provide timelines for carrying out the exercise.
Demands have been voiced by various quarters to decriminalize Acts including those related to running businesses, copyrights, defamation and other offences. It is only after a ministry suggests the decriminalizing of a particular provision that the process can be taken forward.
The government has in the past worked to decriminalize certain provisions under the Companies Act in an effort to promote the ease of doing business.
In March, the Union cabinet cleared 72 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, decriminalizing various offences and moderating the penalty regime to boost of ease doing business.Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters that the proposed changes will make the Companies Act, 2013 “more humane”.
Sitharaman said a ministerial panel had looked into how many sections in the Companies Act caused businesses worries. “We suggested 72 changes to 65 sections in the Companies Act, 2013. In this set of amendments, the priority is to decriminalise the Act. Majority of the changes are to remove criminality of the offences where no mala fide is intended. The major thrust is to improve the ease of doing business and to decriminalise the law,” the minister said.
Veteran bureaucrat and former I&B Union secretary Uday Kumar Varma said as time passes and circumstances change it is important to have a new look at the laws and their provisions.
“Revisiting old laws is a very necessary phenomenon. No law is static. Perhaps, what is being proposed is to ratioinalise many provisions of the law and bring about better synchronization. This process seems a natural and desirable process. This is also a requirement for ease of doing business and for economic development. Ease of doing business is desirable as long as it does not come at the cost of any section or puts national interest in jeopardy. However, in this case, prima facie, to me this seems a natural exercise,” Varma said.
