Judicial IT Infrastructure: A Vision

Background: Information Technology is going to be the back bone of judiciary. As per the Policy and Action Plan Document-Phase II of the E-Courts Project of the e-committee of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India(herein after referred to as Policy Action Document), the following functions will have to be discharged by the Hon’ble High Courts:

1. Project Management and Monitoring Mechanism

2. Procurement of Hardware Resources and their deployment as per the specifications approved by Hon’ble Supreme Court e-committee.

3. Periphery Software Development and deployment for e-CIS to suit the requirements of the state.

4. Managing the networking and data including monitoring the quality and completeness of data available in CIS.

5. Training, deployment and management of the end staff who will manage the e-CIS at court level.

At present, our Information Technology Initiatives working on judicial side are (a) Case Information System(CIS) which is the back bone of IT Infrastructure initiatives and is basically an information management system regarding the filing, processing, managing and disposal of cases in court (b) E-Courts for Subordinate Judiciary which ensures flow of case management information to the public (c) National Judicial Data Grid(NJDG) which is basically a Management Information System(MIS) for CIS (d) Mobile Initiatives such as ecourts, JUSTIS etc. which are basically information dissemination systems for specified population like judicial officers (e) Video Conferencing equipments for judiciary. In addition, there are upcoming applications, initiatives like Integrated Criminal Justice System, Virtual courts, E-filing, NSTEPS etc. which gives more spread to the IT initiatives of the judiciary and will bring more public interaction with out IT initiatives. Salary of staff is managed to SPARK and office expenditure is managed through BIMS. There are also other administrative IT tools like e-office deployed in other administrative offices but have not yet deployed in judiciary, which will help the judicial administration also to go paperless.

It can be seen that the basic design of all these initiatives is of a hub and spoke; CIS is acting as the hub for all the activities and all other applications/initiatives will seamlessly integrate with CIS and work by giving and taking information from CIS. CIS being an initiative of Hon’ble e-committee of Supreme Court intending to give a common platform for all judiciary related information, one High Court cannot by its own make any changes to the structure of CIS or any existing initiatives and hence all future IT infrastructure initiatives at the level of Hon’ble High Court will have to be taken keeping this aspect in mind. Further, CIS being basically an information management portal, has been designed to capture information and its primary aim is not to ease the work of the judiciary but to capture and disseminate information regarding the judiciary. Hence, by design, CIS is not going to ease the work of judiciary or ensure more effective dispensation of justice. This is at the same time an advantage and disadvantage of the current judicial IT initiatives. It is a disadvantage since it will not ease work, and it is an advantage because it gives an accurate picture of the state of affairs in judiciary without any significant change in operating procedures. Any initiative that changes current operating procedures requires much more extensive training and change management mechanisms. While creating a vision document, it is most humbly suggested that all the necessary requirements to ensure effective administration of justice shall be kept in mind, and moving to the aim of paperless judicial administration should be balanced with the need to ensure accuracy, sufficient back up capacity for our servers and protection of existing workforce.

Software Infrastructure part of Judicial IT Infrastructure:

Objectives:

• Primary aim of the Judicial IT initiatives should be to ensure effective access to speedy justice by effectively managing the judicial work.
• Judicial IT initiatives should also aim at automation that would reduce technical or mechanical aspects of judicial functioning, thereby increasing efficiency of the judicial functioning.
• Reduction of the use of paper in judicial work as far as possible by deploying tools like e-office for administrative work, SPARK and BIMS for financial aspects with CIS for case management so that data where ever given once need not be replicated again manually should also be another aim of Judicial IT initiatives.

Automation:

• As far as possible all communications, summons, warrants, reports etc. issued by the court should be digitally created using the data available in the CIS automatically upon the judicial officer making an order in that regard in the judicial software and digitally transmitted to the concerned outside authorities by email or through the software of the department concerned. There should also be facility to receive reports required to be filed before the court from other authorities in response to the communication issued by the court digitally, as authenticated by the digital signature including aadhar authenticated signature of the respective authority.
• Judicial Softwares being developed should be capable of automating the judicial work without affecting the discretion. For example, if instead of manually providing dates for each case, Software can itself put the date on a pre-defined logic, based on Case Flow Management System, with facility to manually override the system provided dates, and to automatically move from stage to stage based on compliance/non compliance of statutory requirements with facility for judicial intervention on application by parties or suo moto, it can go a long way in managing day to day work in courts and court staff can be utilized for more productive work.
• Mobility:
• Outbreak of pandemics like CoViD19 have made the entire government machinery think of avoiding physical workforce. When designing judicial IT infrastructure for the future, manpower portability and the ability of the workforce to augment their work even from outside geographic parameters should be taken into account. Hence, all equipment procured should be capable of having optimal performance both within a specified geographical location and away from such specified geographical locations.
• In future, physical positioning of parties, including litigants and lawyers inside the court hall may go and instead, the parties and lawyers may log in from the outside locations. Even entire trial proceedings may be done by video conferencing. This would require connecting outside devices to judicial IT networks. Hence appropriate security protocols should be developed for this purpose.
• Going forward, mobile and hand held devices will replace the computers. Police officers are currently using softwares like e-beat to connect with officers while on work outside police stations. Judicial Officers such as Magistrates also will have to work from outside court premises from their home or at other locations for works like remanding prisoners and preparing dying declarations. Hence, judicial softwares should be so tuned that requests for outside works such as remanding prisoners, making dying declarations can be made online, and the judicial officers can access such requests and act upon the same online. If remand warrants can be also generated and send to prisons online, authenticated by the digital signature of the judicial officers or by bio-metric/finger print/aadhar authentication, it would go a long way in ensuring their accuracy. This would require interaction between portals of police, judiciary and the prisons department, and hence ICJS modules should be developed to facilitate such aspects. This would also require that the judicial softwares should be made available outside court premises. Hence, appropriate protocols permitting connection of judicial software in the personal communication devices of judicial officers should be developed. As I understand, there is a demand from the police and prison authorities for such facilities to be incorporated in judicial softwares.
• Equipments and Hardware:
• The available infrastructure should be put to optimum use and overcrowding of court rooms or offices with multiple electronic equipment with same/similar functioning should be avoided.
• While purchasing equipment, equipments that aesthetically fit with the available courtroom atmosphere should be selected and when ever selection of the equipment for a particular court is made, the views of the officer and staff therein should also be solicited, as far as possible.
• All computers and printers should be networked, and where ever possible Multi functional printers with enabled print/scan/fax/copy facility connected in a network, should be deployed to put the available printers/scanners to optimum use. If there are more courts in one court complex, all the printers in different courts should be interconnected with sufficient privileged access facility incorporated so that where ever printers in one court is not functioning, printers in other courts can be used.
• Softwares:
• CIS should be understood as an information management tool and it should not be looked upon as an all out solution for judicial IT requirements. Softwares which speak to and provide necessary inputs and take output from CIS should be developed.
• While developing such softwares, data security and measures to prevent breach of data security should also be given prime importance.
• Currently the same data will have to be entered at multiple points, for example the data in proceeding sheets also need to be reproduced in CIS. If such multiple data entry can be avoided, a lot of judicial time can be saved. 
• Instead of using separate proceeding sheets, judicial orders should be directly typed into either by judicial officers or at their dictation by typists into judicial softwares.
• Predictive text should be enabled so that similar short orders can be typed with ease.
• Handwriting enabled tablets should be given to judicial officers, and bench clerks so that instead of typing, orders can easily be written in the tablets.
• Digital signature and water marking should be enabled for judicial orders so that compliance of copy applications can be speeded up/dispensed with.
• E-filing, E- Stamping and digital payment protocols should be enabled at all courts and all the payments in and out of the court should go in digital manner.
• All documents filed in court should be filed in digital formats, so that at all the documents can be made available at all stages of the trial and in different courts simultaneously, without affecting the trial at lower courts when the records are send to higher courts.
• S. 275 of Criminal Procedure Code enables recording of evidence of witnesses by audio-video recording. This enables witness testimonies to be recorded in audio visual mode, rather than by writing them by hand or by typing the testimonies, and the video recording can be used as evidence by putting it in a password protected mode, so that access privilege can be managed to ensure tampering.
• Proviso to S. 161(3) Cr. P.C., provides that statements under S. 161 Cr. P.C. can be recorded by audio-video electronic forms. Once the process of investigation is complete, the electronically prepared FIS, other case records and entire video files with metadata including video files of s. 161 Cr. P.C. statements can be shared with the court along with report under s.173(8) Cr. P.C. A copy of this file can be shared with the accused digitally with or without copying facility. If any files contain sensitive material that may affect privacy of individuals, the investigation agency can indicate the same and the said file will not be shared. Upon completion of formality when the case comes up for trial, the witnesses can be cross examined based on their video recorded testimony, including the data of analysis of emotional aspects. These depositions can also be recorded using facial recognition camera so that there can be a real time analysis of the emotional aspects (demeanor) revealed on such recording.
• Service of copies to the accused and lack of clarity of copies are currently one of the factors affecting the disposal time. If all copies of documents can be electronically given to the opposite side, it can save a lot of time in judicial proceedings. If the softwares are so developed that while E-filing, either by the advocates or the police officials, the scanned copy of the documents are uploaded, it becomes easily shareable. The opposite party, upon entering appearance, can be given username and password to access the case records and case progress details. All documents filed by both parties becomes automatically available to opposite side, and the issue of not receiving proper copies of applications and records can be resolved for ever. When ever a party files a document, he should produce the original before the office of the court, and get the verified and returned. If any party want the original document to be produced before the court, then such party can utilise the provisions of O. XI CPC or Chapter VII Cr. P.C. respectively. Similarly, if all material objects are video graphed and photographed with three dimensional measures, and these videos and photographs are produced along with case records, while the original object be either returned, or disposed off as per rules, it will save a lot of space in court rooms and these documents/photographs/video-graphs can be made available at all stages of the case. If amendments are required in the rules for this, the same should also be envisaged.
• If time can be assigned for hearing of cases in judicial softwares, with automatic advancement where the case is disposed early and automatic adjournments if the case takes more time, it would help in managing the judicial time. For example, if the parties can specify time taken by them for arguments, and the software automatically gives a date based on the available time on board, and if the opposite side is having inconvenience, they can specify the same in the software, so that another date is assigned, it will help to manage judicial time. If the cases take lesser time, cases posted subsequently can be advanced, with facility to the lawyers to show their inconvenience, in which case, the case will be automatically removed to another available time slot, it will help to manage the time of both judges and lawyers. Similarly if a case takes more time than usual, the lawyers would get a notification for taking further time slots, and if such time slots are not available in a given date, the case can be moved to such dates on which the time slots are available.
• Automatic Text Summarisation tools to summarise pleadings from the uploaded documents can be made use of to assist the judicial officers in preparation of judgment and orders.
• Judicial Officers should be allowed to update and upload their own templates for various orders/judgments in the judicial IT softwares. In the alternative, if the Hon’ble High Court can fix a uniform template for all types of orders/judgments, the same has to be made available in the judicial IT softwares.
• There should be a facility to interlink various judicial and non judicial softwares, so that data commonly required in both softwares need not be again entered.
• Data Security:
• Currently there is no security or inter linking mechanism to various softwares including CIS and SPARK. This is partly because of lack of awareness of the staff and partly because while designing the softwares, logins are created not based on actual work but based on designation. For example, in SPARK bills are prepared by clerical staff using DDO’s log in. Going forwards, creation of login profiles based on job requirement, and creating robust features like bio-metric/fingerprint log in, with auditing features will be required since with the coming into force of Personal Data Protection Act, the responsibility of the intermediaries will be increased and there will be requirement for restricting access to personal data and for auditing the access points.
• While developing an IT protocol for judiciary, it must be kept in mind that technology grows much faster than rules. Rules made with the current technology in mind may soon get outdated. Concept of data ownership, security and even work environments are subject to very fast changes. Hence it is most humbly submitted that Sufficient leeway should be given in the new rules for adapting to better and more effective technology quick without wasting time.
• Cadre Wise Initiatives:A permanent IT Cadre: Ideally, a permanent IT Team should be able to manage all these functions under the supervision of the Hon’ble High Court. Only those who have actual work experience in the subordinate judiciary will be in a position to ensure that the IT resources for subordinate judiciary will be put to optimum use. Unless the permanent cadre is comprised completely of the officers and staff who has experience in the functioning of Subordinate judiciary, the IT activities envisaged cannot be put to optimum use.
• Registry: 
• There should be a Separate Registry for IT Strategy consisting of (1) Five Deputy Registrars, one each for each of the functions as envisaged by the Policy Action Document. The Deputy Registrars should be invariably serving judicial officers of the Cadre of Munsiff Magistrate having at least 3 years experience as a judicial officer (2) two Joint Registrars, who should be invariably serving judicial officers of the Cadre of Sub-Judge one responsible for Hardware and maintenance related issues and one responsible for software and training related issues, and (3) One Registrar-(IT Strategy and Implementation), who should be invariably a District Judge having at least 3 years experience. Registry for IT Strategy and Implementation shall be responsible for all the activities relating to Information Technology management, the procurement and deployment of IT resources and their timely maintenance and training and deployment of staff members who will be end users of IT resources.
• Permanent IT Cadre shall function in a hub and spoke manner. The Registry for IT Strategy and Implementation will be the centralized IT hub for procurement development maintenance of IT resources. It will be supported by personnel in each Court Complexes who will be responsible for the actual ground level implementation of the Strategy. Such persons will work under the general direction of Registry of IT Strategy and Implementation, but will be subject to the administrative Control of Hon'ble District Judge. Where the Court Complex is not in the district center, such personnel shall also be answerable to the Senior most Judicial Officer of that center. The data and logs relating to all centralized equipments such as servers shall be the responsibility of these personnel. They shall maintain separate electronic logs for the purpose.
• In addition there shall be two persons in each Court who can either be a clerical staff belonging to Permanent IT Cadre or who have been given specialized training by the Registry. One such person shall be responsible for and will be the one point contact for deployment, management and maintenance of hardware resources and shall act as the Electronic Equipment Officer, who shall be responsible for keeping a register of all electronic equipments in the said court. The other person shall be responsible for managing the software issues arising in the said court and give training and assistance to other staff members on an on going basis on the relevant software as per directions of the Registry of IT Strategy and Implementation. These two personnel shall be the contact for all hardware and software related matters respectively in the individual court level and shall liaison with the personnel at the District level and Registry level to manage ground level issues. 
• Staff members from civil and criminal wings of the subordinate judiciary can to be appointed on deputation basis initially. Only upon proven competency should be absorbed permanently into the IT Cadre. Ideally only persons with at least 1 year experience in the subordinate judiciary shall be deputed to the permanent IT Cadre. 
• The personnel selected to the permanent IT cadre including the Deputy Registrars, Joint Registrars and Registrar’s shall be given custom made training on software and hardware development and deployment with the help of NIC/CDIT. After assessing their aptitude, they should be deployed either in the software wing or in the hardware wing. 
• A team of at least 20 officers including staff shall be retained at the Registry. Each Deputy Registrar shall have a team of at least 4 staff members under them responsible for the activities in their domain. The there shall be at least 2 officers at the District level one for managing issues relating to hard ware issues at the District level and one for managing issues relating to software.
• Where ever possible, assistance of experts from the field of IT and computer science including internship projects should be availed for which the policy should be made. 

Rethinking Evidence and recording depositions.

We are living in a world where Artificial intelligence is fastly developing. One key area which the judges are having trouble with is to distinguish between an honest witness and a dishonest witness. There are witnesses who can lie without a bait of an eye. Some witnesses imagine and recreate facts, events and things which never existed and present them as if that is the truth.  It is always difficult to find out the truth from the ordinary look at the face of these witnesses and also by normal cross examination especially when the witnesses are coached. 

Another big issue in relying on oral depositions is the twisting of depositions by intermediaries including police and counsels. Twisting can occur for a number of reasons including a genuine concern for the betterment of the party. But these concerns are a challenge to the judicial process in finding out the truth. One of the major challenges in the current Indian judicial system is the practice of taking down in writing the testimony of witnesses. The practice of taking down in writing the deposition of witnesses is the advent of modern criminal justice system. While this practice helped to capture the depositions of witnesses more accurately than relying on the memory of the officials involved in the criminal justice process, at an era when even photography was new technology, much water has flown since then. Taking down depositions in writing has the following disadvantages:

✓ Written words does not capture emotional aspects including tone and accent that accompany the spoken words.

✓ Writing of spoken words by another person will invariably involve the mental exercise of the person taking down the evidence, which may tend to twist the actual spoken words and give them an entirely different perspective.

✓The difference in dialects can mislead the reader.

✓ Taking down something in writing involve an exercise of discretion by the writer who may in the exercise of such discretion include things not intended by the speaker.

What is the way forward? Technology has developed many tools for accurately capturing even  the emotional aspects of the speaker. (See https://youtu.be/CVClHLwv-4I, https://youtu.be/lDC90ObdMEs ). If all agencies including crime detection and justice administration team uses these AI models to record the deposition of witnesses using video cameras with face recognition technology capable of capturing and analysing emotional aspects of the speaker, the error margin in criminal justice system can be reduced to a great extent. Further recording of oral testimony by crime detection agencies and using it in evidence instead of testing the memory of the witnesses by requiring them to accurately remember the sequence of events at a future date would help in removing trauma of the victims, especially of violent crimes, in recreating what they went through at the time of crime several times and giving chances for distortion. It will also help the criminal justice administration mechanism to accurately capture the oral testimony of witnesses including the tonal variations, dialectical features and the emotional aspects attached to the deposition enabling judges to accurately decide regarding the truth of the depositions.

Imagine a scenario where the victims and witnesses's depositions are recorded by the police under s.161 CrPC using a face detection camera which captures emotional aspects while the victims/witnesses speak. The police can use this to analyse the accuracy of the deposition to arrive at a conclusion regarding the occurrence. Immediately on recording this video will get uploaded into the criminal justice server kept centrally under the management of judiciary to avoid tampering. This recording with all metadata can be shared to the various stakeholders including medical professionals who conduct medical examination of the witnesses. The doctors while making physical examination of the victims can assess this recording and use it to compare with the results of their examination to arrive at an opinion. The original recording of depositions can also be done at the hospital while the doctors conduct medical examination in a similar way using a software which uploads the recording to the judicial server which can then be used by police also. The doctors can upload their report online, which can be accessed by the police and other investigation agencies. The scene of occurance can be captured using a  Geo Information enabled camera (see:https://youtu.be/CK9m0Sn37v0,  https://youtu.be/mIaG6EDBtao). Once the process of investigation is complete, the entire video files with metadata can be shared with the court along with report under s.173(8) Cr.P.C. A copy of this file can be shared with the accused digitally with or without copying facility. If any files contain sensitive material that may affect privacy of individuals, the investigation agency can indicate the same and the said file will not be shared. Upon completion of formality when the case comes up for trial, the witnesses can be cross examined based on their video recorded testimony, including the data of analysis of emotional aspects. These depositions can also be recorded using facial recognition camera so that there can be a real time analysis of the emotional aspects revealed on such recording. The original depositions recorded by the police can be used for chief examination instead of repeating the deposition. A witness need to be called for cross examination only if the defence counsel seeks to clarify something from that witness by a written application. If a witness is not called for cross examination, the deposition recorded by police should be accepted in evidence and the same should be used for any evidencial purpose. If a witness is called but the witness fails to appear either in person or through video conferencing after proper service of summons, the deposition has to be discarded in toto. This will save a lot of time in judicial process and will enhance the quality and efficiency of criminal justice system.

Rethinking Bail

Bail is the rule and jail is an exception. However, the present rules regarding bail are very outdated and requires amendment. At present media and public considers that a person arrested for an offence is guilty, and granting of bail is to an extent considered as almost equivalent to acquittal. Fundamental legal principle that a person is presumed innocent until found guilty is often forgotten by the police, press and consequently media. This infact is a result of the rigour of the colonial era bail provisions. Even though the purpose of custody is to ensure that a person is made available for investigation enquiry and trial, in popular myth it is the first confirmation of guilt of the accused. Keeping a person accused of an offence in custody affects his fundamental right to life guaranteed to him under Art. 21 of the Constitution. Further in India, the arresting officer himself deals with the entire case, which has the potential of skewing facts for a multitude of reasons including self aggrandisement. Hence the following suggestions are made to improve the bail provisions-

(a) The investigation and arrest and custody shall be done by separate officials. There should be at least one investigation and one arresting and custody officer in each police station. Investigation and Arresting and Custody officer should have distinct hierarchy and invariably arresting and custody officer shall be superior in rank to the investigation officer.

(b) In case of grave urgency only the investigation officer has right to arrest. In such cases, immediately after the arrest the arresting officer shall hand over the custody of the arrested person to the arresting officer.

(c) All arrested persons shall be entitled to get released immediately on bail if such person meets the following criteria - 

 (1) The offence alleged is not punishable with more than 7 years imprisonment.

 (2). The arrested person is capable of and agrees to cooperate with investigation, inquiry and trial and for the purpose agrees to

(i) submit to surveillance of any lawful nature by law enforcement agencies 

(ii) furnish such persons and near relatives complete identification details including physical address, telephone, email,social media addresses and agree further that the communication to any of the given addresses is sufficient service of notice to such person for any purpose during investigation inquiry and trial, including appeal, that any change in any of the addresses shall be promptly informed to law enforcement agencies and the forums before which the case is subsequently put up, that such person does not require any further notice than intimation through such addresses including social media accounts email and phone numbers, that in case of any failure to appear in pursuance to a notice addressed to any of the addresses or accounts furnished by such person, such person agrees to forfeit his right to bail until such time that such person is able to convince the arresting officer where the case is in investigation stage and the forum where the case is pending that such person will cooperate with the legal process, and that such person also forefeits all his rights as a citizen, including right to property and right to obtain and keep a passport upon failure to appear before the investigation officer or the forum as the case may be provided the forum where his case is pending can restore the rights upon his appearance.such person appears before the court.

(iii) agree further that he shall not involve in any wilful criminal activity during the period of bail failing which his right to bail is forefeited.

(3). The offence does not involve violent crimes of serious nature punishable with more than 3 years or crimes that affect psychological aspects of the victims.

Justice Administration Reforms: Bullet Point Agenda

Talks are going on regarding reform of procedural and evidentiary law to bring more efficacy to justice administration process in India.(https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/india/story/home-ministry-criminal-laws-overhaul-ipc-crpc-evidence-act-ndps-1625600-2019-12-05). Several opinions are also expressed regarding how and what reforms should be made in Criminal justice system. (See

(https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-road-map-for-criminal-justice-reforms/article29760563.ece/amp/) &(https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/cursor/why-there-is-an-urgent-need-to-reform-indias-judicial-system/). This article is a an attempt to iterate the urgently needed reforms and put up an agenda for reform of Indian legal system.

Purpose of Reform:

1. Impact of reforms: Need for legal impact analysis

2. Faster and efficient procedure

3. Evolving Criminal Justice administration as a service to society rather than as an instrument of sovereign authority.

4. Transparency in procedures.

5. Better respect to rights of:

5.1. Victims and their relatives and those interested in their welfare.

5.2. Witnesses.

5.3. Accused, their relatives and those interested in reforming and integrating criminal into society as a person useful to society

5.4. Law Enforcement officials and their families.

5.5. Judiciary

5.6. Law Implementation officials and their families.

5.7. Society as a whole.

6. Restoring faith in justice administration system.

7. Evolution of clear and measurable goals in each limb of criminal justice administration.

8. Introduction of social auditing into criminal justice administration without succumbing to mob psychology.

9.  Providing protocols for adaptation of technological advance in evidence collection and presentation before judicial forums automatically.

10. Adaptation of  justice administration system to the changing pace of social expectations.

 Reform Agenda Bullets:

1. Simple, uncomplicated and understandable language.

2. Simplified procedure in:

2.1. Arrest

2.2. Bail: 

2.3. Processes

2.4. Trial

2.4.1. Appearance of parties including summons.

2.4.2. Pre trial procedure.

2.4.3. Trial procedure

2.4.2. Post trial procedure.

3. Integrating technology into criminal justice administration to:

3.1. Transparency

3.2. Simplicity: 

3.4. Efficacy

3.5. Costs

Technology has low shelf life. It is most important that there should be a protocol where technology is prima facie relied and used rather than suspected. The orientation of our justice administration system should be to accept technology till it is proved disadvantageous or tampered. Ideally the provisions of Evidence Act should be amended to incorporate this principle and restrictive provisions should be removed. Suggested wordings are:

It shall be presumed that all products of technology and all electronic documents and electronic and software imagery, audio and video products accurately gives the outcomes that they are intended to and promises to achieve unless it is proved other wise. 

3.6. Eliminating unnecessary exercise of discretion to avoid delays.

3.7. Faster dispensation of justice.

3.8. Avoiding unnecessary deployment/ use of human resources.

3.9. Reducing unnecessary clerical work.

4. Improving and simplifying the court procedures and structures.

5. Simplified procedure for accepting evidence.

6. Reform of bail mechanism to ensure:

6. 1. Liberty of individual irrespective of financial and/or social status

6.2. Purposive use of bail to ensure liberty.

6.3. Simplified bail procedures

6.4. Avoiding unnecessary detention.except where:

6.4.1. Accused has the potential 

6.4.1.a. to harm the victim

6.4.1.b. tamper with evidence.

6.4.1.c. abscond from process of law.

6.5. Managing productivity of undertrial prisoners.

7. Better methods for identification of persons involved in all stages of criminal justice administration.

8. Better management of victim expectations in the justice administration mechanism.

9. Management of reputation and privacy of all parties in criminal justice administration including victims, accused, witnesses, law enforcement, judiciary and prison management officials.

10. Avoiding multiple recitals of their trauma by victims by use of technology.

Legal Education- Some Thoughts

In the last two blogs, I have be iterating the problems that are being faced by Legal Education in Kerala. The same can be summarised as follows:
1. Lack of long term planning
2. Lack of motivation amongst a large majority of students
3. Improper utilisation of available resources
4. Absence of motivating factors for teachers
5. Lack of political will in government to change things.

Recently I had an occassion to interact with the eminent members of the committee appointed by Government of Kerala to study the legal education reform in Kerala. While discussing with them, I had a feeling that the discussions of committee was mostly moving towards an idea of abolishing the existing law colleges and come up with a set of premier law colleges in the model of National Law school.

I had been watching the growth of National Law Schools into prominance for quiet some time. Since I had been in the industry, I was also able to observe the performance of many National Law School products from close quarters and compare the same with students who pass out from other institutes. Keeping aside the euphoria with which many employers approach National Law school products, from the work parameters, I have felt that many other law school products have greater capabilities than National Law school products, but the National Law School products have a refinement which makes them instantly acceptable in the industry. Going deeper, the reasons for these students achieving refinement is mutifold and it has roots in the fact that most of the national law school prodigy come from well to do families, which themselves give a sort of refinement to these students. In addition the high level of motivation, the academic atmosphere prevailing in national law schools and the instant adaptablilty of National Law school prodigies to the office politics- all could be factors which make them successful. On the other hand, the students from other institutes lack the academic atmosphere and upbringing, which put them at least a year back of national law school products in competition to survive.

So the first and foremost problem to be addressed is to bring in a proper academic atmosphere in law colleges, and other institutes. Proper academic atmosphere is a very vague concept and is suseptible to interpretation. My idea of a "Proper" academic atmosphere are as follows:
1. Research facilites: a.Libraries that work 24X7, with little restriction to students to access books.
b. Computer facilities and internet access
c. Regular teachers, with research motivation and capabilites
d. Proper academic workload for students and ensuring a strict regime of classroom lectures there by taking away spare time from students in colleges.
e. Academic freedom enabling individual teachers to frame and conduct their courses, of course with the approval of college and university
2. Motivated Academics: High level of motivation amongst students and teachers, characterised by increased preparation for classes, increased class room participation in discussions, a free atmosphere where every student can freely express their ideas and feelings, proper career advancement map for teachers, and refresher courses and workshops for teachers in regular intervels, proper feed back mechanism for students to assess the teaching performance etc.

Once these two basic and simple things can be achieved, my personal feeling is that every law college can become much greater than national law schools. For this what is required is abundant political will to control the forces that deny these to the law colleges. But who will bell the cat!!!

My Idea about Law Library

A library is the heart of a law school. More than lectures, what a law student needs is how to find the relevant law, where to find it fast and how to apply it to a practical situation. Guidebook exams, like what we see in Indian legal education scenario today cannot create good lawyers- just poor academics and legal apprentices. Law library is not just a storehouse of old books, it is a research lab for a law student, a place for meditation and reflection and reference and a touch stone to check the accuracy of classroom blah blahs. A good law library is one which would attract the students and researchers to it and not one which would turn away everyone who approaches it by its dusty atmosphere. It should have a calm and soothing atmosphere, where one can relax, read and reflect upon the theoretical expositions in the class room discussions. An ideal law library is a place where you can develop a liking to law, which does not restrict discussion except where it disturbs others and where there are facilities to enjoy and enhance your reading experience. My concept for a good law library for the future is a combination of online and offline legal resources available. We cannot expect law students of tomorrow to go to a library and take time to browse books to find the relevant law. There is too much of legal information already available online including legal databases and what is required is to train them not to find law, but to analyse it. Offline Law Library: A good offline library would have a mix of the following resources: a. Staff: Committed staff, with passion and understanding about law and its divisions is an unavoidable must for a good law library. Some one who does not know the difference between intellectual property law and property law would only create a havoc in a law library. b. Space: Library make one feel nauseated upon entering. A clustered library would do more harm than good- it will turn away even those students who are willing to read. A good library should have adequate stacking space, a well lit and cozy reading space and discussion space. If necessary, cameras should be used to check on the behaviour of users rather than the penetrating eyes of a nosy staff. A good reprographic facility with printing, scanning and copying facility is a must for a library. A stationery store, from where students can buy essential stationery items for immediate use in the library would be a good addition to a library. Though many libraries add internet and printing facilities to a library, it is better to separate internet facility from library many a times traditional library timings my clash with internet accessibility requirements. c. Resources: There should be a good mix of law books and general books for a good law library. To assume that a law student requires only law books is a fallacy; law derives its source from literature, politics, sociology, science and any subject that can be found on earth. A good law library would have a not less than 70:30 proportion of law and non law subjects. d. Timing: A good law library should be open 24*7 because God only knows when a person has mood to read, and when he/she gets into that mood, he should be able to find the book and a place! If 24*7 is not possible due to staff constrains, at least an 8 to 8 schedule during week days is a must if library should do any good. Online Law Library: Online law library of tomorrow is not going to have a locus: which means that it will not be located at some fixed place like an offline law library. Yes, it will be located in servers inside the college campus, but the way users access it would be much different from how people access an offline library: it would be accessible anywhere and everywhere to those who have the secure credentials to log in to the online law library. People can access it from their tabs, laptops and even mobiles, so that information is disseminated without constraints of time, location and space. The only constraint would be your internet or 3G speed and accessibility. While and offline library is a place where you relax and reflect, an online database is a repository of all knowledge you have in the world. It just needs a click of your finger to get what you need before your eyes. The thrust of an online law library is the availability of knowledge and its accuracy in your finger tips rather than its display. Currently available legal resources for an online law library in India: Online legal resources can be divided into free and paid: Paid Resources: Paid legal resources like manupatra.com, westlawindia.com,lexisnexis.com, http://www.indlaw.com/, http://www.scconline.com/,etc. would cost you somewhere between Rs 30000/- to 3.5 lakh per user. You can also try JUSTOR, which is a comprehensive resource of around 20-30 thousand journals, but it is known to cost somewhere between 9-12 lakhs per annum. (The rate of most databases are subject to negotiation and if you are a good negotiator, you could get a good offer). Free Resources: Free resources can be divided into databases and journals: Databases: 1. Indian Database Resources: Indian Kanoon (www.indiankanoon.org) is a good site of Indian judgments and statutes. It gives a good search facility, though occasionally you come across judgements which is incomplete. Its search facility helps you to search through the text of judgement, so that you can find the exact word or phrase you are searching for. It is one of the best resource currently available in India and gives better features than may paid legal databases for free! Mr Sushant Sinha, the brain behind Indian Kanoon deserves full credit and support for this marvelous free database. If you are looking for judgement from horses mouth you have judis.nic.in, which is the official Indian judgement information system It gives link to most High Courts and Supreme Court websites. 2. Indian Journal Resources: The e-library link of Bombay High Court website (http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/libweb/judlibwebindex.html) is a good resource for online legal research and has been maintained excellently.I have not come across any other High Court as so well maintained as Bombay High Court and I hope if other High Courts follow suit, it is not far that Indian law enthusiasts would have a hey day. All cudos to Mrs Uma Narayan, Chief Librarian & Mr Anant Pawar, Section Officer, Bombay High Court Judges' Library, who developed such an excellent website and providing links to many interesting legal websites. If someone is interested in historical cases from India, don't look any where else but to the Bombay High Court website. Indian Legal Information Institute(http://www.indlii.org/index.aspx) has also tried to set up a free legal database in the model of balii.org and commonlii.org but compared to search facility and presentation of indiankanoon.com it is just a kid that has potential to grow. As of now it is just a link repository, with no additional features. 3. UK Legal Resources: Current UK Supreme Court cases can be found from http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/decided-cases/index.html . Historical and older UK cases can be found from: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldjudgmt.htm &http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/. While British and Irish Legal Information Institute's www.Bailii.org is a good resource for British and Irish cases, the official website for UK statutes is http://www.legislation.gov.uk/.http://www.parliament.uk/ is also another good resource for UK statutes. 4. Commonwealth Legal Resources: http://www.commonlii.org/ is a good resource for common wealth cases and statutory material. 5. US Legal Resources: Legal databases in United States, with is stringent copyrights laws is almost monopolised by a few paid database providers, which is recently brought to light by the tragic suicide of internet hackivist Aron Swartz. However, legal databases are available free of cost in US too. Free US cases can be found in http://www.supremecourt.gov/ while http://uscode.house.gov/ provides a consolidation of federal laws in US free of cost. Legal Information Institute(http://www.law.cornell.edu/statutes.html &http://www.law.cornell.edu/), an endevour of Cornell University Law School also gives links to US Code and state statutes including bills in the offing. 6. Other Legal Resources: Legislate online is a good site for statutes across the world. (Legislate Online-Criminal law for Eastern European Countries: http://www.legislationline.org/documents/section/criminal-codes). Chinese law can be found from http://www.lawinfochina.com/ & (http://www.chinalawinfo.com/). While China Law Info website is in chinese and you would need a google translation service to read the contents if you do not understand Chinese much, Law of China website has pretty much english contents as well. http://goov.org/ is a good resource for French legal system. While Europa(http://europa.eu/eu-law/index_en.htm)gives a fair idea about EU law and legislation. Journals: Social Science Research Network's Legal Scholarship Network (www.ssrn.com) is one of the best research site where we can get almost 100 odd online research journals free of cost. The articles are downloadable free of cost from SSRN. It contains an ever growing database of quality legal articles in every branch of law and other social sciences, and is the future of legal & social science research of the future. law.com, findlaw.com, www.lawgazette.co.uk, http://lawyerist.com, http://abovethelaw.com etc are some good legal journals. Other legal materials available online are: Washburn Univeristy School of Law's A-Z list of online law journals: http://www.washlaw.edu/lawjournal/ Hg.Org: http://www.hg.org/journals.html Directory of Open Access Law Journals:http://www.doaj.org/ University of the West of England Website: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/law/freejournals.htm Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal:http://www3.law.harvard.edu/journals/hjrej/ Harvard Civil rights and Civil Liberties law journal:http://harvardcrcl.org/ Harvard Human Rights Law Review:http://harvardhrj.com/ Harvard International Law Journal:http://www.harvardilj.org/ Harvard Journal of Law & Technology: http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/ Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy:http://www.harvard-jlpp.com/ Harvard Journal of Law and Gender:http://harvardjlg.com/ Harvard Journal on Legislation:http://www.harvardjol.com/ Harvard Latino Law Review:http://harvardllr.com/ Harvard Law review:http://www.harvardlawreview.org/index.php European Journal of Law and Technology:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/ Law and Contemporary Problems: http://lcp.law.duke.edu/ University Law Review Project: http://www.lawreview.org/ World Legal Information Institute Website: http://www.worldlii.org/ Yale Law Journal: http://www.yalelawjournal.org/index.php

My articles-Published and Quoted:

Published:

1. All India Bar Examination-Facts Reality and Law, Amity Law Review Vol 7, (Nos 1 & 2), July-December 2011 page 31.

2. Unit linked insurance products (ULIP) and Regulatory Tangle, (2011) PL February S-12

(Web link: http://www.supremecourtcases.com/index2.php?option=com_content&itemid=135&do_pdf=1&id=20388)

3. Regulation of Financial Derivatives: Some Policy Considerations- IUP Law Review July 2011(IUPLR21107)(web link: http://www.iupindia.in/1107/Law%20Review/Regulation_of_Financial_Derivatives.html)

I am quoted in:

1.Prof John Flood "Legal Education in the Global Context", http://blenderlaw.umlaw.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Global_Legal_Ed.pdf, www.johnflood.com/summerschool/Flood_Legal%20Education1.doc & also in http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/news_publications/latest_news/pdf/lsb_legal_education_report_flood.pdf)(Quoted two articles: “Global Legal Education and India—A Blueprint for Raising Indian Legal Education to Global Standards” & All India Bar Examination—Facts, Reality and Law)

2. A K M AZAM CHOWDHURY, "MILITARY STRATEGY OF BANGLADESH TO COUNTER TERRORISM IN NEAR FUTURE",http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA547353(Quoted my article: Police Structure: A Comparative Study of Policing Models)

3.Farrukh B Hakeem et al, "Policing Muslim Communities-Comparative International Context" Springer, New York, 2012(http://books.google.co.in/books?id=qe4G9HF5umQC&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=%22Police+Structure:+A+Comparative+Study+of+Policing+Models%22&source=bl&ots=MV_uSSvAel&sig=AnsCyBUFNbN9nS_mSw2SZMCdraA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mUQkUaqBL4nKrAevm4H4Dg&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Police%20Structure%3A%20A%20Comparative%20Study%20of%20Policing%20Models%22&f=false)(Quoted my article: Police Structure: A Comparative Study of Policing Models).

4. Nabil Quassini, Arvind Verma, “Policing Minorities in the Arab World”, Springer, 2012(Quotes my article: Police Structure: A Comparative Study of Policing Models)

5. Portal of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil, http://www2.camara.leg.br/documentos-e-pesquisa/fiquePorDentro/temas/unificacao-de-policias/legislacao-comparada(cites my article: Police Structure: A Comparative Study of Policing Models, in Comparative legislation section).

6.Also quoted as an online resource for CMRJ506 International Crime in http://apus.campusguides.com/content.php?pid=383143&sid=3139806

7. https://permanentsocialism.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/an-investigation-into-saudi-arabian-exceptionalism/

8. Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime  edited by Felia Allum, Stan Gilmour.

9. "Corporate Crimes Committed During the Phase of http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4671&context=theses