Law Enforcement Agencies Shouldn't Consider Borders As Hindrance: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said crimes and criminals do not respect geographical borders and hence, law enforcement agencies should not consider borders as a hindrance and should rather consider those as meeting points for solving crimes.

Addressing the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) -- Commonwealth Attorneys and Solicitors General Conference (CASGC) here, Mr Shah also said when the three recently-enacted criminal justice laws are implemented in the country, one can get justice up to the level of high court within three years of the registration of an FIR.

He said the conference is taking place at a time when geographical borders have become irrelevant when it comes to commerce and crime.

The home minister said there are cross-border challenges for justice delivery, trade, commerce, communication and added that for trade and crime, there is no border.

"Crimes and criminals do not respect geographical borders. Therefore, law enforcement agencies should not consider geographical borders as a hindrance. In the future, geographical borders should be the meeting point for solving crimes," he said.

Mr Shah said geographical boundaries are neither important for trade nor for crime. "Trade and crime are both 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," he said.

Mr Shah said governments need to work in this direction as from small cyber fraud to global organised crime, from local disputes to cross-border disputes, from local crimes to terrorism, all are linked in some way or the other.

Referring to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Act, he said after the implementation of these three new laws, India will have the world's most modern criminal justice systems.

The three laws will replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Evidence Act, 1872 respectively.

The home minister said the government has worked on a model that justice should essentially have three As -- accessible, affordable and accountable.

He said the scope of the conference is not limited only to courts, but it is related to the Commonwealth countries and in a way, the common people of the entire world.

Mr Shah said the Constitution of every country has justice and rights as a common factor and it is the judicial system that does the work of realising those concepts on the ground and delivering justice to the last person.

He said the connection between small cyber fraud to global organised crime is 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," the home minister said.

He said crime and criminals do not recognise borders, hence law enforcement agencies will have to be strengthened to control them, otherwise uncontrolled crime will make trade difficult.

A lot of work has been done on many issues, such as exchange-rate fluctuations, trade-protection treaties, issues related to international standards and regulation complaints and contract and dispute resolution, Mr Shah said.

There are still many issues where there is a need to work to control crime, he added.

The home minister stressed the need to increase 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 next 100 years.

He said due to the changing scenario, the judiciary will also have to change and in view of cross-border cases, the use of technology will have to be adopted in the entire process of justice.

"We cannot deliver justice in the 21st century with laws of the 19th century," Mr Shah said, citing the three new laws that were enacted taking into account the advancement of technology.

He said one can benefit a lot from an artificial intelligence-based translation process in the judicial system.

"We can make great use of AI in understanding the nuances of the legal system and cases," Mr Shah said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)