Crime Today News
India’s criminal justice system is founded on a constitutional framework of liberty, equality, and dignity. Yet for many, particularly the poor and marginalised, these ideals remain elusive. The system often ends up controlling or excluding them through legal complexity, systemic opacity, and procedural indifference.
While laws are meant to create fairness, they frequently produce unintended consequences. Regulatory gaps, inaccessible legal aid, and the disproportionate impact of policing measures on certain groups raise important questions: Who is the justice system built for? And who remains invisible within it?
Poverty as a crime
It is shocking how the current legal order tends to criminalise poverty. Anti-beggary laws criminalise begging and allow for arrest without a warrant, with some states and union territories having specific laws based on the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act of 1959. These laws do not serve rehabilitative goals; rather, they act as tools of visual and spatial exclusion, removing the poor from sight without addressing the conditions that produce poverty in the first place. Forced evictions of communities living under flyovers or near railway tracks are routinely carried out without legal recourse. In such cases, entire populations are removed not only from physical spaces but also from legal protections. These state actions, unrecorded and unchallenged, create a class of citizens who exist outside the law’s protection but within its reach.
Even institutional settings intended for care and protection, such as state-run homes for children, frequently become sites of neglect. Without adequate grievance mechanisms, oversight, or transparency, these institutions often operate more as places of confinement than rehabilitation centres. In some cases, deaths and disappearances go unreported. The recurring pattern suggests that governance frameworks see the poor not as rights-bearing individuals but as subjects to be managed or, worse, forgotten.
When incarceration replaces justice
Another area of serious concern is India’s approach to incarceration. More than 75% of the country’s prison population consists of undertrials. Many are held for minor, non-violent offences. While bail is a constitutional right, it is often denied on vague or subjective grounds, particularly when the accused lacks access to legal representation or social capital. For the marginalised, arrest is not the start of a legal process. It is the beginning of punishment. The journey through the justice system, with repeated court dates, missed wages, legal fees, and delays, extracts a steep cost. Even acquittal, when it comes, cannot undo the damage: lost jobs, broken families, interrupted education, and social stigma. The system appears to treat incarceration not as a measure of last resort but as an expedient tool of control.
Concerns around bail jurisprudence are particularly acute. Bail is often denied without a thorough examination of the facts, and procedural delays can prolong hearings for weeks or months. This creates a feedback loop where access to liberty becomes contingent on privilege while those without resources remain locked in a system they cannot afford to navigate.
Judiciary under strain
If courts are meant to be the great equaliser, India’s district judiciary, where most citizens encounter the legal system, suffers from constraints that undermine its promise. Massive backlogs, inadequate infrastructure, and short staffing are part of the problem. But more troubling is a deeper institutional hesitation to act decisively in defence of individual rights. Judges at the lower levels often operate within an environment shaped by fear of reversals, institutional pressure, or a broader culture of risk aversion. This leads to delays in granting bail, overreliance on police narratives, or cautious rulings that prioritise perceived public sentiment over legal merit. Structural reforms are urgently needed to restore decisional independence. This includes not only more resources but also a reconsideration of internal hierarchies, the culture of discipline within the judiciary, and the need for greater social diversity among judges so that courtrooms reflect the realities of the communities they serve.
Legal aid that reaches the ground
Legal aid is designed to ensure that no one is denied justice due to a lack of financial resources. Yet, in practice, it is often the most vulnerable, homeless individuals, abandoned women, and the destitute, who find themselves without any support when they most need it. Many are unaware of their rights, and even when they are, accessing help through formal systems can feel daunting or impossible.
To change this, legal aid services must extend beyond courtrooms and reach the spaces where people live, such as shelters, informal settlements, train stations, and community clinics. Expanding the role of trained paralegals, social workers, and grassroots legal volunteers could bridge this gap. Digital platforms can assist, but only if they are accompanied by human intermediaries who can translate the law into understandable and actionable guidance.
From retribution to restoration
India’s legal system does not suffer from a lack of laws but rather from a disconnect between the law and lived experience. Especially in the name of national security, laws can end up disproportionately targeting groups, eroding trust in the system and undermining its legitimacy.
A justice system that truly serves the public must prioritise access, transparency, and accountability. Reform cannot be reduced to technological upgrades or docket management. It must begin with a fundamental rethinking of what justice means, not just as punishment but as restoration, care, and inclusion.
The questions that matter
Who is this system built for? Who is left behind by its language, pace, and priorities? These are the questions that must guide reform efforts. A system that measures justice in years and access to privilege cannot claim to serve a democratic society.
Reform is not just about laws—it is about intent. Until the system actively seeks to make the invisible visible, and the marginalised central to its functioning, justice in India will remain more promise than practice.
(The Centre for Development Policy and Practice held a conference in Hyderabad on March 28, 2025, titled “Development Policy and Practice Conference, March 2025.” This article is based on the panel discussion on “Law, Economics and Society: Ensuring Justice.”)
Sejal Gupta is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Development Policy and Practice (CDPP). She is currently associated with the CDPP Regulation Project, covering emerging, infrastructure and consumer sectors.
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