ICJD PROJECT OUTLINE AND WORK PLAN

RESEARCH TITLE:
Assessing the gaps in criminal justice delivery system and its impact in Uttar Pradesh and
West Bengal.

IMPLEMENTER ORGANISATION:
Indian National Bar Association (INBA).

HEAD OF THE ORGANISATION (Secretariat):

Sri. Kaviraj Singh, Secretary General.

RESEARCH TEAM LEADS:

1. Sri. Santanu Mukherjee, Chair INBA Policy Section, Head of Project.
2. Prof. Tabrez Ahmad, Chair INBA Academic Section and Research Coordinator.
3. Smt. Vinakshi Singh, Coordinator for Uttar Pradesh.
4. Sri. Avijit Dasgupta, Coordinator for West Bengal.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE:
One of the pillars of our thriving democracy is ‘judiciary’, the fundamental pillar that ensures
rule of law, delivering good governance. Judiciary includes not only the courts of law but also
the entire mechanism of justice delivery. It comprises an entire legal system encompassing
constitutional rights and prerogatives, enacted statutes, procedural rules and regulations as
well as institutions like the criminal prosecution and enforcement, including the correctional
homes (in appropriate segregation of female, male and juvenile). For justice delivery to
function in an effective manner, all the above need to work together in synergy in a timely
manner. Criminal justice delivery is an integral part on which involves not only the police
prosecution and criminal courts but the entire system of justice delivery in a comprehensive
manner.

In a typical model of cooperative federalism that India follows, justice delivery engages both
the union and the state and hence calls for effective coordination between the two. In the
words of legendry jurist Durga Das Basu, India is neither completely federal nor unitary in
nature. The 7th Schedule of the Constitution places ‘Law and Order’ as a ‘State’ subject, hence
the state is responsible for operation of the laws, including prevention, detection, investigation
and prosecution of criminal breaches, etc. On the other hand, Article 355 of the Constitution
empowers the union government to exercise its powers to address internal disturbances to the
security of the country.

From this it is clear that the role of the states is more significant than that of the centre.
However, we do not live in isolation, the effect of criminal justice delivery, irrespective of
whether the engagement involves the state or the centre, falls on the entire nation. In cases of
failure, whether it is procedural gaps in enforcement of laws, or failure to implement contracts,
each and every flaw negatively influences important factors like inflow of foreign direct
investment in the country among many others. In the 21st century with the advent of advanced
digital technology, delivery of criminal justice should be seamless. At a time when the hon’ble
Supreme Court has been repeatedly insisting on modern means of justice delivery by
promoting e-courts, encouraging video-conferencing facilities not only between the courts and
the correctional homes, but also between lawyers and their clients (at times where direct
interaction is not possible for defendants who are in judicial custody). There is need to assess
the progress in use of such technological means. Considering the importance of functioning of
criminal justice delivery in states, it is important to assess the gaps in the system and their
impact so that necessary changes can be introduced in a timely manner.

INBA has consistently made efforts in serving the society through its engagements on varied
legal issues and has conducted extensive research on different relevant issues in the past. In
order to address the issue of justice delivery in states, the purpose of this research project is to
identify the gaps in criminal justice delivery in the states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
and assess the reasons for such gaps. The aim is to provide necessary inputs that can enable
necessary course correction to improve the criminal justice delivery mechanisms. More
precisely the objectives are enumerated below:

1. To identify what are the major gaps in the criminal justice delivery mechanism in the states;
2. To assess the impact of these gaps among different sections of society;
3. To explore information dissemination on these gaps and their impact;
4. To solicit ideas to bridge these gaps in criminal justice delivery mechanism;
5. To formulate methodology, including structural or operational to address these gaps.
6. To engage in capacity building on these gaps, informing on their impact and addressing
them pragmatically.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The issue of ‘criminal justice delivery’ is complex and involves factoring in different
stakeholders. Research on identifying gaps in justice delivery mechanism is hence also
complex and no single research methodology would suffice to come out with a meaningful
outcome. For this reason, Socio-legal research methodology would be adopted since it
encompasses different methodologies in an inter-disciplinary manner to connect law with the
society.

As apart of different methodologies it will include Theoretical or Doctrinal research that will
involve laying down the legal framework on which the criminal justice delivery of the country
is based. Namely the fundamentals of constitutional provisions, relevant statutes, rules and
regulations and their implementation that are core to the justice delivery system. This will aim
to prepare the context of research and put it in appropriate perspective.

It will include Empirical research through assimilation and compilation of available data from
authorised national sources. There would be analytical research on the modern technological
tools available to highlight as promoted by different judicial pronouncements. This will be
supported by an assessment of the status of the same in the two states. The aim is to collate
context-specific data and prepare them to enable comparative analysis to increase relevance of
the research.

A significant part of the research will also be Participatory research since the problems are
actually faced by the stakeholders. The participatory research being one of the crucial part of
this research, aims to cover different districts of the two states through interviews of
stakeholders and holding workshops and seminars both for soliciting views and for
capacity-building. The beneficiaries of the criminal justice delivery system are the common
people on ground from rural, semi-urban and urban areas. There are different issues and
concerns of different sections of the society like the elderly, or women and children, or youth
and there are also concerns of interest groups like farmers, industry workers, investors, etc.
While engaging with the conventional stakeholders like judiciary, civil administrators and
police, the research aims to cover representations of all these stakeholders.

The aim of the participatory research here is to engage with such stakeholders through
prepared questionnaire, interviews, workshops, roundtables and seminars. Based on the
doctrinal foundation of the research, there is need to integrate the empirical data gathered
through stakeholders’ participation in a manner that there is possibility of taking necessary
corrective actions. Through these different methodologies, the aim is to conduct meaningful
research and come out with a comprehensive report to be able to move knowledge into action.

DATA COLLECTION:

Data would include both Primary data and Secondary data.

1. Primary data will be assimilated from different stakeholders through questionnaire and
interviews covering north, south, east, western and central parts of the two states;
2. Secondary data will be compiled from national sources including, reports, publications,
books, etc.

MAIN ACTIVITIES:

The research to identify and assess the gaps in criminal justice delivery mechanisms in the two
states will involve the following main activities:

1. Literature review;
2. Preparation of questionnaire for different stakeholders;
3. Engaging with different stakeholders (in 20 + 20 districts of each state), including law
enforcement agencies encompassing the police administration, the civil administration,
the officers of the court, i.e. public prosecutors, police officers, senior lawyers as well as
jurists and law academics, to get inputs and responses to the questionnaire;
4. An assessment of the possibilities of using modern digital technology in justice delivery.
This would follow with an analytical study of the judgments of different hon’ble High
Courts and the hon’ble Supreme Court and recommendations of the judges to adopt
technology by way of e-courts, video-conferencing facilities. Subsequently a comparative
assessment of guidelines notified by different High Courts in this regard and the status of
the same in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
5. The engagements with the stakeholders would be varied, including conducting interviews,
workshops, roundtables and conferences to collect data.
6. Collecting relevant data that will include drawing from previous published studies
undertaken by different organisations, including INBA, e.g. “National Crime Report Against
Women and Delhi Policy Survey”;
7. The primary data samples will be collected from different districts of the two states to give a
comprehensive representation of north, south east and western parts of the states;
8. Assimilation of data from all these different sources;
9. Drafting of the report;
10. Publication of the report at the closing conference.

KEY DELIVERABLES:

The key deliverables from the research work are as follows:

1. Identifying the different gaps in the criminal justice delivery mechanism in the two states;
2. Assess the impact of the gaps in the criminal justice delivery mechanism to different
stakeholders;
3. Formulate pragmatic recommendations from a problem-solving perspective to bridge the
gaps in justice delivery mechanisms;
4. Engage with the stakeholders throughout the two states as practically feasible through the
questionnaires, interviews, workshops, etc. for information dissemination and capacity
building;
5. To publish a report that can be a reference document for any stakeholder, including
government at the Union or at States in their efforts to bridge the gaps in justice delivery. As
well as enable the report to be used as reference document for any further research in other
states in future.

TENTATIVE WORK PLAN:

September 2019
1. Start work on Literature review, both general articles and those specific to Uttar Pradesh
(UP) and West Bengal (WB):
a. Justice delivery System;
b. Criminal justice delivery systems;
c. Under-trial review mechanisms and its impact on criminal justice delivery;
d. Establishing divisional and circuit benches of high courts on delivery of justice
delivery;
e. Impact of justice delivery system in white-collar crimes to trade and industry;
f. Impact of prison reforms in criminal justice delivery mechanism:
i. Leveraging from video-conferencing connecting prisons and courts;
ii. Use of advanced technology in managing prisons to improve efficiency,
transparency in record maintenance etc., installing mini mobile phone towers to
track usage of mobile phones inside prisons, etc.
g. Modernisation of courts by digitalisation of courts and establishing e-courts;
h. Crimes against women and children and criminal justice delivery in such cases.
i. Assessing possibility of use of Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms in criminal
justice delivery mechanisms;
j. Parliamentary debates on related subject.
October 2019
2. Compilation of data based on library research, internet-based research - crimes against
women, police surveys, court reports, studies undertaken both generally on the subject matter
and related subject matter as well as specific to UP & WB.

3. Assimilation of the compiled data and draft questionnaire:

a. Preparing questionnaire for different stakeholders:
i. For civil administration;
ii. For police administration;
iii. Officers of the court (members of the bar);
iv. Members of legislative bodies (both local, state and MPs);
v. Law academics;
vi. Members of industry chambers;
vii. Drafting the report.

b. Format in tabular form and otherwise for use in drafting of report:

NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2019, JANUARY FEBRUARY, MARCH & APRIL 2020
(Workshops, interviews and seminar schedules to be prepared elaborately in close
coordination with State Coordinators by October 2019)

4. Holding workshops and seminars to collect primary data and to conduct discourses:
a. Preparing for the workshops;
b. Work of rapporteur for the workshop – detailed note taking;
c. Finalisation of notes along with the completed questionnaires.

5. Send primary data in tabular format to research team for making it readily available for use.

6. Drafting of the report using the data collected:

a. Should cover the present situation considering recommendations by Hon’ble higher
courts of law and any other government commissions on topics related to criminal justice
delivery mechanism;
b. Assess the gaps in criminal justice delivery mechanisms;
c. Observations and recommendations on what can be done to remove the gaps and
improve the criminal justice delivery mechanisms.

MAY, JUNE & JULY, 2020

7. Finalising the draft report along with Executive Summary and submission to Ministry for
preliminary comments.

8. Incorporating comments from the Ministry and getting clearance for printing.

AUGUST 2020
9. Launch of the report in a conference in New Delhi.
Santanu Mukherjee, Project Head