President Smt. Droupadi Murmu presided over the valedictory ceremony of CLEA- Commonwealth Attorneys and Solicitors General Conference CAGSC’24 in New Delhi, today. Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah addressed valedictory ceremony of CAGSC’24. Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Shri Suryakant, Union Minister of State (I/C) for Law and Justice, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Attorney General of India, Dr. R. Venkataramani, Solicitor General of India, Shri Tushar Mehta and Chairman, Commonwealth Legal Education Association, Dr. S Shivakumar were amongst several other dignitaries present on the occasion.
In his address, Shri Amit Shah said that this Conference is being held at a time when geographical boundaries are no more important in the world. He said that now, geographical boundaries are neither important for trade nor for crime. Trade and crime, both are 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.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that justice has great importance in the life of a common man. He said that Smt. Draupadi Murmu comes from a remote and most backward area of India and her becoming President of India shows how deep the roots of democracy and the spirit of the Constitution are in India.
Shri Amit Shah said that 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. He said that the constitution of every country has justice and rights as a common factor and it is the justice system that does the work of realizing them on the ground and delivering justice to the last person.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that today no one can deny geographical borders and barriers even in today’s interconnected world. But, both barrier and border have been removed from trade, commerce, communication and crime. He said that connection from small cyber fraud to global organized crime is now becoming very deep. From local disputes to cross border disputes, the connection is becoming deeper. The entire process from small theft to hacking the banking system and data is complete and the connection of international terrorism with local crime is also becoming deeper. Today, crime and criminals do not recognize borders, hence law enforcement agencies will have to be strengthened to control them, otherwise uncontrolled crime will make trade difficult.
The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that a lot of work has been done on many issues like exchange rate fluctuations, trade protection treaties, issues related to international standards and regulation complaints and contract and dispute resolution. He said there are still many issues today where we have to work to control the crime. He said that there should be no limit of geographical border for law, instead, geographical border should be a meeting point for law. He said that 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. He said that no country can remain safe without being in coordination with the laws of other countries.
Shri Amit Shah said that in today’s era of technology, ‘cooperation’ and ‘coordination’ will have to be made the key mantra for ensuring justice delivery. He said that 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. Shri Shah said that India has done a lot of work in this direction. He said that we have changed its form in India by holding discussions with all stakeholders regarding resolving trade disputes and complete reform of criminal laws. He said that we have 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 coming 100 years.
Union Home Minister said that in today’s changing scenario, the judiciary will also have to change. He said that in view of cross border cases, the use of technology will have to be adopted in the entire process of justice. He said that we cannot deliver justice in the 21st century with laws of 19th century. Shri Shah said that once the three new criminal laws — Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam – are fully implemented, India’s criminal justice system will become the most advanced criminal justice system in the world. He said that we can benefit a lot from Artificial Intelligence- based translation process in our judicial system. He said that we can make great use of AI in understanding the nuances of the legal system and cases.
Shri Amit Shah said that it is very important to make the entire justice system 3A i.e. accessible, affordable and accountable and there should be maximum use of technology for these three aspects. He said that new criminal laws have place for both, technology and forensics. He said that to promote evidence-based prosecution, we have made the visit of Scientific Officer mandatory for investigating cases punishable with sentence of 7 years and more.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that even before the implementation of the new laws, the Government has already created the entire infrastructure and also completed the work of human resource generation by creating Forensic Science Universities and we will create 35000 scientific officers every year from 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. He said that 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 one crore prosecution is available online. Shri Shah said that software is also being developed using AI for police, court, prosecution and forensics. He said that this will make things simpler and after complete implementation of all three new criminal laws, any FIR will reach justice in 3 years.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation urged the Attorneys and Solicitor Generals of the Commonwealth countries participating in the conference to share the actionable points discussed in the conference with the law making agencies of their countries, shape the law and make efforts to fix the global order, only then this conference will be considered successful.
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RK / RR / AK