Context: Recently, the Supreme Court and High Court judges stated that a committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to introduce reforms in criminal law lacks diversity and it needs to ensure transparency.
About the Committee

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted a national level committee for reform in criminal law.
• Composition: It is a five-member Committee headed by National Law University Vice-Chancellor Dr Ranbir Singh with leading lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani among others as its members to undertake a review of criminal laws.
• Functions: The committee will look into the introduction of new forms of punishments including principles of restorative justice and applying the revised punishment framework to the offences, reviewing the amounts of fine, identifying offences requiring an addition to the IPC and identifying redundant offences.
• It will also look into aligning provisions of the IPC with SC judgements.
• The panel will also look into strengthening the legislative foundations of criminal justice institutions in order to enhance their efficacy and effectiveness while simultaneously limiting abuse of powers, including discretionary powers.

Concerns

• This “committee lacks diversity both in terms of the social identity of members, as well as their professional background and experience”.
• Unlike previous committees that had been assigned reforms of such magnitude, this one did not even have full-time members. 

Suggestions

• Diversify: Include more expertise, diversity and create sub-committees with outside experts and other consultants with established track records in the field of criminal justice.
• Working structure: The committee should clarify whether or not it is working independently of the MHA.
• Stakeholders Engagement: It is imperative for the committee to engage with a wide range of stakeholders in the criminal justice system in a meaningful, substantive, and transparent manner.
• Make response publicly: The signatories suggested that all the responses received by the committee should be made publicly available on its website.