All Procedures Related to Trials and Investigation Under New Criminal Laws to be Recorded Digitally: Report
New Delhi: With the country-wide rollout of the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), procedures related to all investigations and trials that take place under the new criminal laws will be recorded digitally, reported The Hindu, citing a senior Home Ministry official.
The ICJS integrates all arms of the justice system including police, courts, prisons, forensics, and prosecution on a single platform, with the data being stored in the government-owned cloud platform MeghRaj.
However, as per data maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), at present the First Information Report (FIR) consumption by courts, which is the process through which cases are electronically transmitted to and received by court systems, was at 46%, less than half of the cases registered.
The three new criminal laws – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita (BSS), and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) – came into effect on July 1, 2024.
In the last two years, 74.66 lakh FIRs have been filed under BNS, reported The Hindu.
The three laws have replaced Indian Penal Code (1860), Indian Evidence Act (1872), and the Code of Criminal Procedure (1898) respectively.
So far, out of 36 states and Union territories, Haryana, Goa, Assam, Punjab, and Chandigarh have implemented all the parameters of the justice system. While 23 states, including Delhi, are above the national average, due to connectivity issues, some of the northeastern States were lagging behind, the Home Ministry official told the newspaper.
As on May 31, 2026, the database contains 37.68 crore police records including 9.9 crore FIRs and 7.64 crore chargesheets in the database, which can be accessed by police and investigating agencies.
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