 Early Times Report
New Delhi, June 19: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said his ministry is "actively engaged" with the Supreme Court to work out a new system for reducing the pendency of cases in the apex court and high courts, and ensure timely justice for people. Speaking at the inauguration of the All India Fingerprint Conference-2026 organised by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) here, Shah stressed that police and forensic experts should accurately collect evidence from the crime scene and ensure that these are "not contaminated" to secure a fast and correct conviction.
He also spoke about the three new criminal laws introduced by the Modi government to ensure timely justice.
"We identified the loopholes (in the old criminal laws) and 90 per cent of the law-based ones have been addressed.
"The Union home ministry is actively engaged with the Supreme Court for creating a new system to address volume-based delays in the high courts and the Supreme Court," Shah said.
He said the government is "determined" to prevent delays in the criminal justice system.
Addressing police and forensic experts from across the country, the minister told them to file timely chargesheets, follow up with the prosecution, and pursue cases before the courts to ensure timely decisions.
Shah said converting information or data into intelligence is important and cited the example of the Mahabharata, where Lord Krishna played this role and ensured victory for the Pandavas against the numerically superior Kauravas.
He said all the data gathered from crime scenes should be analysed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to find crime patterns so that not only crimes can be pre-empted, but criminals are also caught quickly.
The minister said that a modus operandi bureau, which he suggested creating within the NCRB four years ago, should now start working to study crime patterns, repeat offenders, and interstate and international criminal networks.
Shah stressed that not only should the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) be used for identifying criminals, but the database must be enriched by adding fingerprints collected from crime scenes.
"There are numerous such cases where NAFIS has been of great help in simplifying even the most complex cases. But I still believe that NAFIS is being utilised only 10 per cent of the time.
"NAFIS should not be used just for finding criminals, it can succeed only when you enrich the NAFIS data through fingerprints obtained from every crime scene," the home minister said.
It is a two-way system that is very useful in proving the criminal, but the crime can be proven only when data is generated, Shah said.
"When it comes to the criminal justice system, our country is going through a phase of transformation. In the old days, the police station was considered a tool to maintain law and order.
"If there was a dispute anywhere, the station house officer would resolve the matter; otherwise, it would go to court, and cases would remain pending for years on end," he said.
The time has come to make the criminal justice system a suitable means for every citizen to obtain the due rights given by the Constitution, he said.
Shah stressed the need for imparting training to use the tools under the new criminal laws to produce only necessary and essential evidence in the chargesheet, which confirms the role of a criminal.
"Fingerprint match confirmed, telephone records match confirmed, face match confirmed, eye and DNA match confirmed, and then you go before the court with 250 pieces of evidence. So what's the use of technology then?" he said.
Experienced prosecutors will have to be prepared by providing practical training, he added.
"We need to work very well for the active use of technology across the entire chain of investigation, prosecution and conviction," the minister said. |
