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CRIME AGAINST WOMEN AND REFORMS IN INDIAN CRIMINAL LAW BY: MANJUNATH M P
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CRIME AGAINST WOMEN AND REFORMS IN
INDIAN CRIMINAL LAW
AUTHORED BY: MANJUNATH M P,
5th Semester 3 Year LL.B.,
P.E.S. Law College, Mandya.
(Affiliated to Karnataka State Law
University, Hubballi)
Abstract:
According to the National Crime
Records Bureau of India the conviction rate in Crime against women is very low
in India. This trend can be traced down to decades together and the impact of
which is reflected in terms of: criminalizing the society, ruining the mental
health of innocent person by implicating them in false cases, flooding the
courts with fake cases which in-turn burden the courts resulting in deprivation
of justice for the genuine cases and surging male suicides in India which is
2.6 times more as compared to female, where one married man commits suicide
every 6 minutes. Judiciary has expressed concerns over above effects time and
again, leaving it to the legislature to further deal with it. The Malimath
Committee established by the Ministry of Home Affairs which aimed to reform
India's criminal justice system, presented several recommendations which also
included recommendations pertaining to offences against women and police
reforms in India to improve the standard of investigation and collection of
evidence as the entire foundation of criminal justice is based on investigation.
Also, in 2013 Justice Verma Committee recommended amendments to the criminal
law to provide for quicker trial, enhanced punishment for criminals accused of
committing sexual assault against women and several reforms in management of
cases related to crime against women. Even then, there are no definite reforms
implemented in India’s criminal justice by legislature, executive and judiciary
ensuring equality and justice. We are in a new era focusing on the digital
transformation of courts, along with which we should utilize the concepts of artificial
intelligence to implement innovative methods to further strengthen the justice
delivery system especially in criminal cases preserving the fundamental rights
of the individuals and ensuring transparency in the justice system.
Statistics
of Crime against women:
The National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB) with tagline Empowering Indian Police with Information Technology, is an
agency of Indian Government responsible for collecting, maintaining, and
analyzing the crime data of the country. It has various divisions like Central
Finger Print Bureau (CFPB), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems
(CCTNS), Statistical Branch, Data Center & Technical Branch (DCT), Training
Branch and the recently created one in the month of July 2020 is PMPB
(Popularization, Master Data Maintenance, Publications and Best Practices)
Branch. is an authentic source of data on crimes, accidental deaths, suicides, prison
statistics of India. The NCRB is an authentic source of data which compiles and
publishes National Crime Statistics i.e., Crime in India, Accidental Deaths
& Suicides and Prison Statistics reports which would further serve as
principal reference point by policy makers, police, criminologists, researchers,
and media, both in India and abroad.
Crime in India is the oldest and the
most significant publication of NCRB and the report contains complete
statistical information on cognizable crimes registered in police stations
during the reference year and their disposal, person arrested and their disposal
under major heads of Indian Penal Codes (IPC) and Special & Local Laws
(SLL). The snapshot of the NCRB data with respect to “Crime against women in
India” statistics in terms of conviction rate and disposal of the cases in
which arrests were made by the police upon registration of the crime are shown
in Table - 1.1. Similarly, the snapshot of the NCRB data with respect to
“Crime against women in Karnataka” statistics in terms of charge-sheeting rate
and conviction rate are shown in Table - 1.2
Table - 1.1: Statistics - Crime
Against Women in India
|
Year
|
Conviction Rate
(IPC + SLL)
|
Disposal of Person Arrested
|
|
Discharged + Acquitted
|
||
|
2017
|
24.6
|
1,67,527
|
|
2018
|
23.1
|
1,69,790
|
|
2019
|
23.7
|
1,75,129
|
|
2020
|
29.8
|
91,328
|
|
2021
|
26.5
|
1,15,473
|
Table - 1.2: Statistics - Crime
Against Women in Karnataka State
|
Year
|
Charge-Sheeting Rate
|
Conviction Rate
(IPC + SLL)
|
|
2017
|
83.3
|
5.4
|
|
2018
|
81.9
|
7.7
|
|
2019
|
83.5
|
4.8
|
|
2020
|
84.7
|
4.3
|
|
2021
|
87.2
|
8.2
|
With
reference to the NCRB data shown in Table
- 1.1, the average conviction rate in India for the “Crime against women”
is 25.5% and on an average the Courts have discharge and acquitted around 1,43,850
person every year (out of which around 14,900 are women), who were arrested by
the police for crime registered under “Crime against women”. Similarly, with
reference to the NCRB data shown in Table
- 1.2, the charge-sheeting rate by the Karnataka state police for the
complaints received by them under “Crime against women” is 84.2% and the
conviction rate on the same in Karnataka state is 6.1%, which means for every
100 crime or complaints registered in the police stations under “Crime against
women”, the police after investigating the reported matter filing the
charge-sheet in 84 instances and submitting it to the courts. In the courts,
for every 100 charge-sheet submitted by the police in only 6 charge-sheet the
accused is proved to be guilty. Basically, the police have scored 6 out of 100
marks and have failed to perform their duty miserably. The main reason behind this
is the mechanical submission of charge-sheets to the courts without proper
investigation of complaints registered related to crimes against women, where
the police have failed to detect the false complaints at the stage of investigation.
As per the NCRB data, it is a matter of shame for the police and clearly the
failure of the police department stands out here. This situation prevails in
all the states of India with respect to crime against women.
In the complaints registered of
crimes against women, the police usually make men accused, and they do not
investigate the matter diligently, even in the false cases just to benefit the complainant,
police mechanically file charge-sheets and submits to the courts to put pressure
on men, so that women/complainants can settle their personal scores against men.
Thus, such actions of police resulting in criminalizing the society and burdening
the courts with false cases, which in-turn resulting in wastage of valuable
time of the court, consumption of taxpayers’ money, and deterring the welfare
of the society by implicating innocent people as accused in the false cases and
harass them which is nothing but human rights violations, dereliction of duty
and corruption by the police. Even after having such crystal-clear data there
are no actions or reforms made by the higher police officers of the police
department, the ministry of home affairs, the legislature, and the judiciary in
this regard. And the impact of this is getting reflected in terms of Suicides
in India and destroying the families, family culture which is prevailing in
India.
Statistics of Suicides in India: Accidental Deaths & Suicides in
India (ADSI) is the publication of NCRB, and the report contains information on
deaths due to accidents and suicides. The data for the same is collected by the
State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) from the District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB)
and sent to NCRB at the end of the year under reference. NCRB collects data on
suicides from the police recorded suicide cases. The report has separate
chapters in-detail on accidental deaths, traffic accidents and suicides. With
reference to chapter of “Suicides in India” contains information on suicides by
causes such as family problems, illness, drug abuse/alcohol addiction, marriage
related issues, love affairs, bankruptcy or indebtedness, unemployment,
professional or career problem, death of dear person, poverty, property
dispute, failure in examination, fall in social reputation, suspected or
illicit relation, impotent or infertility and other various causes. This
chapter contains details of professional, educational, and social profile of
suicide victims based on age-group-wise and sex-wise details in the report. Number
of suicide victims by sex during 2004 to 2021 is represented in Figure - 1.1.
Similarly, the number of suicide victims by social status of married during
2004 to 2021 is represented in Figure - 1.2.
Figure - 1.1: Suicide Victims by Sex during
2004 to 2021
Figure - 1.2: Suicide Victims by
Social Status of Married during 2004 to 2021
With reference to the
NCRB data represented in Figure - 1.1, every year, more than 1,00,000
people commit suicide in India and the suicide rate of men is 2.5 times more
than women. That is, as compared to women, significant number of men are victims
of suicide across the country, which is around 72% of total suicide cases. And
out of which 86% of them fall under the age group of 18 to 59 years. “Family Problems”
and “Illness” are the major causes of suicides accounting around 33.2% and
18.6% of total suicides respectively. Also, with reference to the NCRB data
represented in Figure - 1.2, year on year, married men suicide rate is
getting increased and from past few years there is a sharp increase in number
of married men being victims of suicides in India. In the year 2019, married
men suicide rate is 2.58 times more than married women. Whereas, in the year
2020, it is 2.61 times more than married women and with the latest report of
NCRB, in the year 2021, married men suicide rate is 2.82 times more than
married women.
As family problems and
illness being the major causes of suicides, the laws favouring women in India
along with poor investigation standards of police followed in the complaints
reported under crime against women and submission of charge-sheet by police
without proper investigation framing false charges against innocent men's and
his family members, where the men are left with no law protecting them from
atrocities of women which is causing lot of men to suffer from mental trauma,
distress and humiliation that is forcing thousands of men to commit suicide. Looking
into NCRB data and the gender biased laws with current trend in India, it is evident
that men are victims of laws favouring women. In fact, the Supreme Court way
back in the year 2005 itself called out the misuse of Section 498A of the IPC
as “legal terrorism” and in Sushil Kumar Sharma vs Union of India, marked its
opinion saying: “But by misuse of the provision a new legal
terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used a shield and
not assassins' weapon. If cry of ‘wolf’ is made too often as a prank assistance
and protection may not be available when the actual ‘wolf’ appears”.
Recently, in many of the instances
the high courts have observed and expressed worry on the misuse of sections of
the IPC relating to crime against women and few of them are referenced as
below.
|
In the case of “Swapan
Kumar Das vs State of West Bengal, 2023”, the Calcutta High Court stated
that Section 498A of the IPC was enacted by the legislature to “strike out
the dowry menace from the society. But it is observed in several cases that
by misusing of said provision new legal terrorism is unleashed.”
The Madras High
Court, Justice S Vaidyanathan says that: “It is unfortunate domestic
violence law not available for men.”
The Kerala High
Court, Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque says that: “Section 376 of the IPC
is not a gender-neutral provision. If a woman tricks a man under false
promise of marriage, she can’t be prosecuted. But a man can be prosecuted for
the same offence. What kind of law is this? It should be gender neutral.”
The Allahabad High
Court, Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav observed that: “In our society, certain
false FIRs under the POCSO as well as SC/ST Act are lodged against
innocent persons, which ruins their image in the society. This is done just
to take money from the State.”
The Delhi High Court, Justice
Subromonium Prasad observed and expressed worry that: “there is an alarming
increase of false cases of rape being registered only to arm-twist the
accused and make them succumb to the demands of the complainant.”
|
Malimath
Committee:
In the year 2000, the Committee on Reforms
of the Criminal Justice System was established by the Government of India to
review and suggest reforms to the criminal justice system headed by Justice V. S.
Malimath, a former Chief Justice of Karnataka and Kerala High Courts. The Committee
submitted its report with 158 recommendations to improve and simplify judicial
procedures and practices, to bring synergy among the judiciary, the prosecution,
and police, making the system simpler, faster, cheaper, and people-friendly,
and restoring the confidence of the common man on criminal justice system. To
improve the existing criminal justice system, which is suffering by huge
pendency of criminal cases, delay in their disposal and very low rate of conviction,
some of the measures were introduced by the committee in their recommendation
for cases involving serious crimes like stringent punishment should be provided
for false registration of cases and false complaints, prevention of the evil of
witnesses turning hostile in criminal cases etc. The committee also put
forwarded several recommendations dealing with offences against women which are
misused. As rightly pointed out by Malimath Committee stringent punishment
should be given for false cases and complaints otherwise the menace of misuse
of law cannot be controlled. But even after two decades the legislature and
judiciary are very reluctant to implement this recommendation and we can
visualize the effects of it in the society as explained in the previous
sections along with NCRB data.
Suggestions:
Legislature and judiciary have
opinioned that a law cannot be repealed just because of its misuse, and it does
make sense but at the same time there should be measures in-place to control
the misuse of the law. If not, then we end-up in a situation where we are in
today with more than 5 crores of cases pending before the courts, low
conviction rate in criminal offences, enormous delay in deciding the criminal
cases, with the view of misuse of law many innocents suffer and more
importantly the genuine cases would also suffer by not getting justice in time.
Martin Luther King said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere”. So, there should be stringent punishment for the misuse of law
especially in criminal cases and it is need of the hour for India. Police
reforms should be made such that criminal cases should be registered promptly
with utmost promptitude, and the investigating officers should ensure that no
innocent individuals must have to suffer the rigours of the law. Quality of
investigation should be improved, and the investigation officers should be
subjected to periodical evaluation by higher police authorities to review the
charge-sheet submitted by them to identify the false cases and take strict
legal action against such officers who submits charge-sheets frivolously and
without proper investigation. From these measures one of the major problems
like very low conviction rate and misuse of law in criminal justice system can
be addressed.
Generally, a criminal case takes more
than 3 years sometimes even 10 years to get decide in India denying fair trial
and due to this people undergo with immense mental health crisis which drive
them to commit suicide. So, to address this every court should appoint
psychologists and psychiatrists to prevent mental health crisis of people
facing litigations. Further, other major problems in criminal justice system
are huge pendency of criminal cases and the inordinate delay in disposal of criminal
cases by which the citizens have lost confidence in the criminal justice system.
To address this problems, new technologies like artificial intelligence can be
used to generate a chart with scheduled dates for each stage of the criminal
justice process with reasonable buffer time for each stage and hand over the
same schedule to the accused and prosecution on the first day they appear
before the court for trail. By this accused and prosecution will get to know
the schedule and stage of the case upfront and subsequently adhere to those
schedules and complete the trail on time. Such types of innovations or ideas
should be implemented to timely disposal of the criminal cases.
Conclusion:
Crime has no gender. But the crime
against women such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape laws are
gender specific favouring women which are extremely misused by women to settle
her personal scores against men. The gender discrimination laws in India are
spoiling the spirit of freedom and equality in the country which is against to
Article 14 of Constitution of India. When it comes to men, the system and
society talks about his duties but not the rights, whereas dealing with women
they talk about her rights but not the duties. Men has no law to protect
themselves from the atrocities of women due to which the family culture in
India is degenerating, subjecting lot of men to undergo tremendous mental
pressure leading them to commit suicide. It’s men too and laws protecting
specific gender under IPC should be made gender neutral. Investigations should
be impartial, and no innocent individuals should be implicated in false case.
Stringent punishment should be given for the person who make false accusations
under criminal law. Justice delivery system should be strengthened by introducing
new innovative ways to keep up the good mental health of the society and timely
disposal of criminal cases by publishing the chart with scheduled dates for
each stage of the criminal justice process with the help of technologies like
artificial intelligence and focus more on the digitalization of the system such
as e-filing, video conferencing, etc., simplification of the procedures and
bringing transparency in the justice system.
References:
2. Dr. Justice V.S. Malimath Committee
Report on Reforms of Criminal Justice System in India, March 2003.
Justice J.S. Verma Committee on Amendments to Criminal
Law, January
Article Information
CRIME AGAINST WOMEN AND REFORMS IN INDIAN CRIMINAL LAW BY: MANJUNATH M P
Authors: MANJUNATH M P
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2024/02/13
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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