Former judges, lawyers demand diverse representation on criminal law review panel

A group of former judges and bureaucrats, lawyers and academicians have demanded reconstitution of a government-appointed committee looking into criminal law reforms, saying it has no representation of women, Dalits and minorities in the panel tasked with recommending wide-ranging changes in the statutes.

The group, which includes former Supreme Court judges Gopal Gowda and Kurien Joseph and former High Court Chief Justices A P Shah, M N Rao, B A Khan and Yatindra Singh, Singh also wanted the committee to suspend its functioning at a time the country is in the grip of Covid-19 pandemic looking into criminal law reforms.

As the five-member 'Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws' initiated an online consultation process, the group shot off a letter to panel head National Law University-Delhi Vice Chancellor Ranbir Singh, saying that the six-month deadline set for completing the task was not fair.

Also read — MHA panel starts online consultation of experts on criminal law review

"Humanity requires that the Committee not commit to an exercise of this scale when 600 Indians are dying every day and when large swathes of the country are in lockdown or containment," the letter signed by 123 people, including senior lawyers Raju Ramachandran, Indira Jaising and Kamini Jaiswal.

The MHA had set up the committee in May this year to undertake a review of criminal laws and the committee has started online consultation with experts spread over 83 days, starting July 4.

The letter also found fault with the composition of the committee of five members -- Dr G S Bajpai, Dr Balraj Chauhan, Mahesh Jethmalani and G P Thareja besides Singh -- saying it does not reflect diversity.

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"Given this committee's wide remit and given that the final product of this committee’s efforts is set to reconfigure fundamentally the relationship between citizens, and between citizens and the State, it is of utmost importance that the composition of the committee reflects at least some of India’s rich diversity," it said.

The letter said the committee must include representation from social groups and communities that have hitherto been failed by the justice delivery system.

"In the 21st century, how can a committee that is set to rewrite criminal law not have a woman? Is the Dalit community represented on the Committee? One cannot think of rewriting criminal law without ensuring that the life experiences of the Muslim community are adequately represented at every stage of that process," it said.

The group also felt that Adivasis, transgenders, trade union leaders and legal historians and constitutional law scholars should also be included in the committee.

"If this seems like a call to include a wide array of stakeholders and persons affected, it is because such a root and branch rewriting of the three most important laws under the Constitution must be an exercise in extensive public deliberation with the widest representation at the high table to ensure rigorous procedure and robust outcome," it said.

The letter noted with concern that the resources on the committee's website – criminallawreforms.in – are a collection of 89 reports of the Law Commission, seven reports of other committees and 35 articles by the Convenor-Member Bajpai.

"Surely, it cannot be that the committee studied nothing but the Law Commission Reports and the publications of the esteemed member of the Committee before framing its questionnaire? Of the six researchers listed on the website of the committee, one of them appears to have co-authored six articles with the committee’s Convenor-Member, another has co-authored three op-eds with the Convenor-Member, and a third has co-authored one op-ed with the Convenor-Member. All six researchers appear to have been drawn from NLU-D alone," it said.