Criminal justice reform that ignores concerns over police excesses will never be meaningful: J&K lawyers write to Criminal Law Reforms Committee

Lawyers in Jammu & Kashmir have written to the Chairperson of the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws voicing their concerns at the manner in which the reforms process is being carried out amid the COVID-19 pandemic..The letter addressed to Chairperson of the Committee, Dr Ranbir Singh, states,."To reform criminal laws by freezing out a population that has for decades borne the brunt of the damaging effects of the criminal justice system is abhorrent and yet another instance of the authoritarian pattern that the Indian government demonstrates in J&K.”Kashmiri lawyers' representation to Chairperson of Committee for Criminal law Reforms.To this end, the letter urges the Committee to:(i) recognize that it is ill-equipped, in its current form, to recommend reforms to India’s criminal justice system;(ii) suspend itself; and(iii) join civil society in petitioning to the Government of India to act more responsibly in this task which, it is stated, would be bound to "have irreversible consequences, particularly for vulnerable populations like the people of J&K.".The lawyers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the constitution, mode of consultation, composition, timeline, and nature of the questionnaire that would form the basis of consultation for the exercise..The lawyers question the fact that the Committee has been constituted by the Union Home Ministry as opposed to the Law Commission of India, which is usually tasked with recommending/suggesting reforms in law..It is noted that the Home Ministry oversees the functioning of police and investigating agencies, whose excesses in Jammu & Kashmir are “well-documented”..Terming the questionnaire as merely seeking “endorsement” for the heightening of police powers, the lawyers express an apprehension that the questionnaire would entrench the powers of the Home Ministry. To illustrate their argument, the lawyers make reference to the move to increase strict liability offences, enhance the evidentiary value of statements made to the police, etc..The lawyers opine that such an exercise would only undermine the strength of procedural safeguards and facilitate persecution of innocent persons while disproportionately impacting the people of Jammu and Kashmir.The lived experiences of people in the region already bore testimony to the deleterious effects of the abuse of criminal law, the letter further states..Questioning the false equivalence drawn in the Committee’s questionnaire between national and individual security, the letter goes on to demonstrate that national security has been used to in legislations such as the Public Safety Act, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to create an atmosphere of impunity for human rights violations in J&K..The lawyers also challenge the narrow timeline for the completion of the entire reform process. Taking the example of the Malimath Committee (which took around 2-3 years to release a report), the lawyers question how the Committee can complete the entire exercise in six months, in a “principled, effective and efficient manner” as assured..“The ambiguity and vagueness of the mandate aside, it is nothing short of baffling that the Committee intends to complete this mammoth task in a “principled and effective manner” in just about six months", the letter states..The move to reform criminal law at the height of the pandemic, and at a time when people in Jammu & Kashmir were struggling with connectivity and accessibility issues on account of the 2G internet in the region, has also been pointed out to underscore the hasty and exclusionary manner of the reform exercise..Even otherwise, the disparities and inequities in access to the Internet across gender, caste, economic, social lines further underscores the exclusionary nature of the Committee, the letter states..Other problems the lawyers highlight in their letter to the Committee’s Chairperson are the homogeneity in the Committee’s composition (the Committee consists of men), the narrow timeline for the competition of the exercise (the process is spread over six months), and the exclusionary impact of the language of the questionnaire (the questions are in English)..Apart from not including people from J&K, the Committee excludes women; racial, sexual, gender, religious and caste minorities; persons from the working class; persons with disabilities; traditionally over-policed marginalized groups and the civil society organizations that work with such groups; and representation from across India, the letter states..“The Committee’s clarification that consultations are open to everyone without any discrimination ignores the failings of its own lack of diversity and narrowness in perspective, which is certainly not going to be resolved by its wholly inadequate and undemocratic consultative process. Even if the Committee’s clarification is taken at its face value, it will never be able to include the experiences of the people of J&K with a consultation mechanism that is inaccessible due to internet restrictions.”.[Read the letter].The Committee for Criminal Law Reforms has drawn the ire of civil society groups ever since its constitution was announced. It has primarily been criticised for its lack of representation and the narrow timeline for the consultation process, and ambiguous 'terms of reference'..Concerns raised (again) over diversity, transparency of MHA-constituted Committee for Criminal Law Reforms [Read Letter].The Committee has been tasked with the reform of India's century-old substantive laws, along with procedural and evidentiary laws within a six month period. Prof (Dr) Ranbir Singh, former Vice-Chancellor of National Law University, Delhi, chairs the Committee. The other members of the Committee are:Prof (Dr) GS Bajpai (Member & Convenor), Registrar, National Law University Delhi;Prof (Dr) Mrinal Satish (Member), Professor, National Law University Delhi;Mahesh Jethmalani (Member), Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India;GP Thareja (Member), Former District & Sessions Judge, Delhi.