Change the Absurd and Antediluvian Laws of the land

To build the India of your dreams:

MADE BY:

DHRUVIN PATELNIRMA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,AHMEDABAD

Times change,

Technologies get updated..

Governments fade….

Yet why laws, should remain the same???????

NEED OF THE HOUR

Eliminate loopholes

Work towards certainty of punishment

Speedy jurisdictions

And PREVENT the MISUSE of laws

Laws be made with an EXPIRY date

With the provision of amending the section where in necessary

Laws of British Era abound the statute book even today

It is not SEVERITY of sentence but CERTAINTY of punishment that

deters crime, said former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah

The outrage after the Delhi gang-rape was “against the failure of the

judicial system”. Stating that Indians deserved a much better system

Humiliation:155(4) of the Evidence Act, which allows the victim to be questioned of her past sexual historywhich the defense uses to humiliate the victim in the Courtroom.

Definition of Rape inadequate:

It does not address that ‘non penetration’ can also be constituted in “rape” or “carnal sex”

It is covered in Section 354 covering the assault on modesty of woman; where only 2 yearsimprisonment or fine can be meted out!

“Modesty” of a woman not defined inIPC.

No law for anonymity of the witnesses aswell as the victim of the case.

Light punishment for marital rape-In case of rape with his wife who is not under 12 years of age is 2 years imprisonment or fineor both [Section 376(1)]

IPC Section 375:Rape-a man is said to commit “rape” who, except in the case hereinafter expected,has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of thesix following description-1st- against her will

2nd –without her consent

3rd- with her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or anyperson in whom she is interested in fear of death or of hurt

4th-with her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband, and that herconsent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is orbelieves herself to be lawfully married

5th-with her consent, when at the time of giving such consent, by reason ofunsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally orthrough another of any stupefying or unwholesome substance, she is unable tounderstand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.

6th-with or without her consent, when she is under sixteen years of age.

In India, attempted suicide is an offence punishable under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. It is actually a funny thing, because if you succeed, you die. And if you fail, you are arrested, and die anyway. This is similar to customs in ancient Athens, where a person who committed suicide was denied a right of proper burial. On the other hand, we have our Japanese, where you are expected to kill yourself if you fail in your duties. (Are you still listening, Politicians??) They even have a ritual called harakiri which is basically an elaborate way to kill yourself.

While India badly needs efficient laws, the time spent by the law-making body on the job is unbelievably little. Parliament spends less than 0.6 per cent of a LokSabha day on law-making. Looks like we will have to wait for the Lokpal to see our politicians actually working for the interests of our country. Till then, we will have to rely on an old man to go hungry every time we want to get things done.

Suicides Legal, But Attempts Not:

The Legal Drinking Age:• This law, although under the jurisdiction of the state government, has been a

matter of nationwide debate, especially for the younger members of the population.Whereas the legal voting age throughout the country is at a tender (?) 18 years, the legal drinking age varies among the states. For eg. people in Maharashtra cannot buy alcohol until they are 25 years old, according to a recently passed legislation. Even so, they have it better than Gujarat, Nagaland and Mizoram where alcohol consumption is banned. Come on guys, if one is old enough to decide who the next prime minister of India will be, he also has the right to decide whether to drink alcohol or not. India has one of the highest legal drinking age when compared to that of the countries around the world.

Indian Telegraph Act,1885:Why on earth do we still have a Telegraph act, when the only people who used telegraphs (again, L.K. Advani) are not going to use the telegraph to take over India. The Indian Telegraph Act was passed in 1885, when the concept of television obviously didn’t exist.Ithas been invoked five times in the past few years by Doordarshan over telecast rights of cricket matches played in India. This very nearly derailed the telecast of the 1996 World cup. Although most of the provisions in this act are taken care of by Telecom Regulatory Act of 1994, this law is yet to be revoked fully.

Obviously, removing this Law will be a far better option than having to put up with such broadcasts.

Internet Censorship:Kapil Sibal recently came in news as he declared that

“offensive” pictures on social networking websites will

be censored. Well, okay we wish him best of luck in trying

to find all of them! Anyway, what is he trying to do?

Turn India into another China? This may just be wishful

thinking but “Image censorship does not a China make,”

Mr Sibal

The LGBT and Adulterers:• Adultery is a crime under Section 497 of the IPC. Not only being very

difficult to apprehend the offenders (eg. Tiger Woods), there are some very gender discriminatory provisions in this act. According to Section 497, only the male who was cheating on his wife would be sentenced and sent to jail, and the dishonest wife could go on with her sexcapades.

• Speaking of Gender Discrimination, we come to the much debated section 377. For all those of you who are interested,here is the exact wording of section 377. This section was formed during the British rule and illegalizes any form of sexual intercourse which is “against the order of nature”.

• Even though the Delhi High court struck down this law in its decision, the actual amendment is yet to be made, meaning that Neil Patrick Harris cannot come to India without the fear of getting arrested. And yet, Justin Bieber can.

Amendment introduced in 2006 however the final amendment of 2008 createdfor confusion than clarificationcontains words like ‘offensive’ and ‘menacing’ which has been misinterpreted bythe state to violate Freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19 A

Recent case of Facebook-

Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Shrinivasan--were arrested in Palghar in Thane district under section 66A of the Information Technology Act after one of them posted a comment against the shut down and the other 'liked' it.

Hindustantimes

No foolproof, tests for what constitutes harassment.Did not define “the act of spamming”.

Section 66 A of the IT act 2000 amended in 2008:The Section states that any person who sends, by means of a computer resource orcommunication device, any information that was grossly offensive or has amenacing character could be punished with imprisonment for a maximum term ofthree years, besides imposing appropriate fine.

Section 67 B of Indian IT act:

This makes accessing or browsing child pornography as an offense under section67 (B) liable for 5 years of imprisonment and upto Rs 10 lakh fine. This sectionmakes mere accessing child pornography as a punishable offense.

In today's digital world , UNAWARE NETIZENS are often directed towards siteswhich may have child pornography. By mere clicking on the site , a person can beliable for imprisonment and fine.

In India definition of child is anyone below 18 years -so difficult to demarcatebetween pornography and child pornography!

In US only booked for transmitting or publishing childpornography in digital form.

Sedition-

Whoever by words either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, orotherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excitedisaffection towards, the Government established by law in India, shall be punished withimprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend tothree years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.

IPC Section 124 A:

LOOPHOLE was any critical view of the state or Government could lead to arrests, againviolating the freedom of expression!

Supreme court helding out its judgement in the Aseem Trivedi case that:“incitement to violence” was necessary to constitute Sedition mere criticism of governmenthowever fierce it may be may not amount to sedition.

Section 80 of the Indian IT act:

The law grants power to every police officer of the rank of Inspector to enter, search and arrest (in a public place without warrant) a person who has "either committed a cyber crime, committing a cyber crime or is about to commit a cyber crime. "

The tenure of punishment once booked under the section could range between 3 years and life imprisonment, with a penalty of Rs 1-10 lakh.

Word gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of awoman-

Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman utters anyword, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intendingthat such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or objectshall be seen, by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of suchwoman, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a termwhich may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.

No provision when words or gestured not uttered

In case of impersonating a woman on internet and defaming her!

Even Indian IT act do not have provisions to address this loophole!

IPC section 509 :

Justice delayed is justice denied:

• Social, Economic and Political to all citizens is one of the key mandates of the Indian Constitution. This has been explicitly made so in Article 39 – A of the Constitution that directs the state "to secure equal justice and free legal aid for all its citizens." But the experience of last 57 years shows that the state has failed to dispense quick, inexpensive justice to protect the rights of the poor and the vulnerable. Hon'ble Justice B.P. Singh, a serving Judge of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, spoke on the topic "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: the Plight of Indian Poor" at Observer Research Foundation and said that "the situation today is so grim that if a poor is able to reach to the stage of Hon'ble High Court, it should be considered as an achievement. It has merely become a court of the rich.“

• The justice delivery system is on the verge of collapse with more than 30 million cases clogging the system. There are cases that take so much time that even a generation is too short to get any type of redress. A brief look at some of the judicial statistics would tell the true story of the state of justice in India today: -

• On an average, 50 lakh crimes are registered everyday, which are sought to be investigated by the police.

• The pendency of criminal cases in subordinate courts is in the region of 1.32 crores and the effective strength of judges is 12,177.

• The number of under – trials in criminal cases pending in the courts is 1.44 crores and of these over 2 lakh persons are in prison.

• On an average, Courts are able to dispose off 19% of pending cases every year.

• Strength of Judges are inadequate according to population and bunch of cases. As of January 2005, pending cases in the Supreme Court number 30,000, in high courts over 33.79 lakh and in subordinate courts over 2.35 crore - a totally unacceptable situation.

• Much of this is due to shortage of judges. The ratio of judges to population is 10.5 to one million, the lowest in the world. Even this low level is not reached because of the accumulation of vacancies in the Benches -140 against the approved strength of 668 judges in high courts and 2000 against 15000 in subordinate courts.

• There are number of litigations which could be avoided if Govt. officials had taken interest, for e.g. section 80 of CPC require a prior notice of two months to Govt. by a party who wish to sue the Govt. The purpose of this section is to give time to Govt. to settle the matter with such party by taking proper and suitable action, and thereby could avoid unwanted and unnecessary litigation. But the utter failure of Govt. official in taking a quick, bold and suitable action inspite of giving time forces a person to file case.

• *Competency of the Other Staff in Court :

• *Investigative agencies generally delay :

Remedies to Overcome Delay:(Suggestions):1) Talking about the strategies to deal with justice delay, an improved justice delivery

system means cutting down the number of adjournments, reducing the time for arguments, keeping a check on review petitions/ frivolous petitions, stopping lawyers extending cases and so on.

2) Punishments should be very stringent and the implementing authorities should be tough so that crime comes down automatically.

3) Lawyers should encourage out of Court settlements.4) In case a lawyer looses a certain number of cases, his license should be suspended for

sometime so that lawyers refrain from taking up frivolous cases.5) Govt. Officials should be made personally liable for lapses so that cases against the Govt.

are reduced.6) The number of appeals to be filed for each category of case should be fixed. Every

litigant should not be allowed to go to the Hon'ble Supreme Court. If need be, the law can be changed accordingly.

7) It is needed to establish a body at national level composed of Judges, Lawyers and Legal academics, which should be charged with a duty to conduct examinations for recruitment to Indian Judicial Service (IJS). Article 233 will have to be amended to confer power on the president to appoint members of Indian Judicial Services on the recommendation of National Judicial Service Commission. The creation of Indian Judicial Service is appeared necessary to get best available talent in the country.

[8]• We have inherited British legal system, British prescribed it at that time, without

considering the need of Indian society nor did they consider the practical of the procedure.

• So, this system is drawn from different sources without seeing the ground realities. Some people today prefer to keep quiet, rather than go to the court of law.

• So, now this system is more Indianised for making it fit to society. It is heard that in ancient time justice system was very good. The disputes were settled on the spot by delivering justice.

• But ancient justice proceedings were oral in general and therefore no much record is available. Now we can take modem know-how from the countries, which have best justice delivery system by getting acquainted with the procedure followed there, if fit to Indian society.

• The civil and criminal procedure codes and the laws of evidence have to be substantially revised to meet the requirements of modem judicial administration. Though most of procedural laws are effective even today but some provision needs revision, especially the civil laws.

• To lessen the burden of cases, we may introduce the concept of' Plea-bargaining' by decriminalization of those wrongs, which can justly be dealt with by compensatory remedies (Compensation to victim like in tort).

• The institutions involved in justice delivery system such as the police, the prosecution, and the court, prison etc.-requires to be reformed in terms of organization, procedures, resources and accountability. So that, nowhere citizen feels uneasiness. There should be time limits prescribed for adjudication. There should be uniform formats for the appeals and petitions to make the procedure easy. The judgment should be in brevity and clarity. The concept like of public interest litigation is always welcoming, which is affordable to common men. Hence, there is a lot of scope to improve the situation.

• Our criminal justice system has the urgent requirement of Independent Investigative Agency. Delay in police investigation is also one reason due to which cases linger on for years. It is, therefore, good to create an independent wing of police force, fully in charge of crime investigation, and functioning under the direct control of independent prosecutors

• For e.g. Section 301 Cr. P.c. should be amended to allow the victim to appoint a lawyer of his choice in addition to public prosecutor to defend his case. Similarly, Section 3 13 (3) of Cr. P.C. also be amended so that the accused would be held liable for refusal to give answer or telling lie. The victim will be allowed to cross-examine the accused to elucidate the truth. There must be some fixed time for presentation of written statement, counter claim and reply like the plaint, under the I imitation Act. After all procedural law is meant to further ends of justice.

[9]• There is urgently need to improve the basic infrastructure and management of resources.

Modern technology and use of computers could also increase the efficiency of the court system. The judiciary has also to learn management techniques through training at all levels. Though, the Supreme Court and High Courts are having good infrastructure but this in not the same position with lower courts.

• The word “corruption” is very simple to spell but is extremely complicated to understand.

• Technically, corruption is any kind of act of self-interest of using public services illegally.

• Corruption is synonymous to bribery, immorality, wickedness.

• Corruption is not always visible but is always observable.

• It means that corruption is an expression with or with out visibility which has an effectiveness on our life.

• “Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency.”

Corruption:

“We must work together to

throw away this evil from

ourselves and from our

nation.”

We talk about democracy and corruption but many of us are just too tired even to vote. We prefer to promote corruption when we have to get our work done.

We fail to stand by those who raise voice against corruption. We just want to win an argument but loose even our self esteem to corrupt system.

We are the promoters. There is fragmentation within us, what we say, what we think and what we do.

What have we actually done, on individual basis, on ground level, to strengthen democracy and reduce corruption?

Corruption does become a road block in the process of national development if the policy makers are not patriotic or not trained in development processes or not interested in national development and get away fooling citizens. However it is not necessary that corruption is the price we pay for democracy.

In the process of development and employment generation, the concept explains secondary or inconsequential role of money. That makes corruption not affecting too much on the daily lives of the citizens.If such a system for development is followed, in that case, domestic corruption (associated only within the national boundary) has no major impact. But corruption encompassing beyond the national boundary may have both short term and long term consequences for the nation.

Take for example foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-retail.

It's colour is definitely marred by corruption at the highest levels. And once implemented, it will affect and drastically impact the Indian citizens leading to long term unemployment, higher consumer prices and threat to the national security.

Just take one recent example of the story of apples in India. The Indian apples are difficult to purchase (not seen) , big retails and now even smaller retail shops keep only Australian or Fuji or Chinese apples at much much higher prices and unprecedented rate of the price rise still happening.

Corruption always flows downwards, So when our leaders are corrupt, automatically our security guards are corrupt. But because of democracy we are able to protest for our emancipation. Think about an autocracy, here too corruption is prevalent, but people cannot even protest. So it is wrong to say that corruption is the price we pay for democracy.

Not a single person in India would have to depend on paltry food, If all political leaders are made to produce their property with a manifesto. The anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has given up everything for a strong lokpal bill. But it is impossible for a single person to drive against corruption unless and until he enjoys the support and effort of the masses.

Implementation needed:

CVC anti corruption and national strategy

CVC anti corruption and national strategy

(Suggestions):