Geographical border should be meeting point for enforcement agencies: Shah

Shah said geographical boundaries are neither important for trade nor for crime. “Trade and crime are both becoming borderless and at such times, to deal with trade disputes and crime in a borderless manner, we will have to start some new system and tradition,” he said.

Shah said governments need to work in this direction as from small cyber fraud to global organised crime, from local disputes to cross-border disputes, from local crimes to terrorism, all are linked in some way or the other.

Shah said the scope of today’s conference is not limited only to the courts, but it is related to the Commonwealth countries and in a way, the common people of the entire world. “A lot of work has been done on many issues such as exchange rate fluctuations, trade protection treaties, issues related to international standards and regulation complaints, and contract and dispute resolution,” Shah said.

“There are still many issues today where we have to work to control crime. There should be no limit of geographical border for law, instead, geographical border should be a meeting point for law. Determining such a meeting point can be done through conferences like today’s, only then the laws of all the countries will reciprocate each other and justice delivery will be possible. No country can remain safe without being in coordination with the laws of other countries,” Shah said.

The Home Minister said in today’s era of technology, cooperation and coordination will have to be made the key mantra for ensuring justice delivery. “When today’s global crime challenges do not respect the borders, then for the delivery of justice too, we will have to look at the borders as a means and not as an end. Borders will have to be developed as meeting points and not obstacles in justice delivery. India has done a lot of work in this direction,” he said.

Shah said, “We have changed its form in India by holding discussions with all stakeholders regarding resolving trade disputes and complete reform of criminal laws. We have also increased the use of technology to the extent that it will be possible to incorporate all the changes that will take place in technology in the next 100 years.”

Referring to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act, Shah said after the complete implementation of the three new laws, India will have the world’s most modern criminal justice systems.

“In today’s changing scenario, the judiciary will also have to change. In view of the cross-border cases, the use of technology will have to be adopted in the entire process of justice. We cannot deliver justice in the 21st century with laws of the 19th century,” he said.

“We can benefit a lot from Artificial Intelligence-based translation process in our judicial system. We can make great use of AI in understanding the nuances of the legal system and cases. It is very important to make the entire justice system 3A; accessible, affordable, and accountable and there should be maximum use of technology for these three aspects. The new criminal laws have place for both technology and forensics. To promote evidence-based prosecution, we have made the visit of a scientific officer mandatory for investigating cases punishable with sentences of seven years and more,” he said.

Shah said even before the implementation of the new laws, the Central government has already created the entire infrastructure and also completed the work of human resource generation by creating Forensic Science Universities.

Shah also said when the three recently enacted criminal justice laws are implemented in the country, one can get justice up to the level of high court within three years of the registration of an FIR.

“We will create 35,000 scientific officers every year from the forensic science universities. Through the Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS), we have connected all the police stations of the country with single software so that they can work online in their respective languages. We have stored more than 8 crore legacy data through police. Over 15 crore data related to lower judiciary has been made online in e-court. The data of more than 2.5 crore prisoners is now available online through e-prison and through e-prosecution, data of more than 1 crore prosecution is available online,” he said, adding that software is also being developed using AI for police, court, prosecution, and forensics.

Shah said President Droupadi Murmu comes from a remote and most backward area of India and her becoming the President of India shows how deep are the roots of democracy in India.

President Murmu said, “In recent times, as the world faces the threat of climate change, we should also add environmental justice to these varied aspects of the concept of justice. As it happens, the issues of environmental justice often pose cross-border challenges. They form the key area of what this conference is about: Cross-Border Challenges in Justice Delivery. Our environment is only the most obvious way in which we all are inter-connected.”