New Delhi: There’s a troubling trend in India’s criminal law—minor violations like disturbing an animal and littering in a zoo are punishable by jail of up to six months and/or a fine of up to Rs 2,000. Similarly, failing to give notice of intention to make alterations or repairs to any building is punishable with imprisonment of six months and/or a fine up to Rs 5,000, a legal think tank report has highlighted.
Issuing a cheque for the discharge of a debt/liability, which is returned unpaid due to insufficiency of funds, or for exceeding the amount agreed to be paid from that bank account, is punishable by jail for up to two years and/or a fine up to two times the amount of the cheque.
This disproportionality in criminal law and patterns of overcriminalisation in the legislative landscape have been highlighted in a report by independent think tank Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, published last month.
Titled ‘The State of The System Report’, it seeks to understand the scale of crime and punishment in India, and look at the impact of overcriminalisation on citizens, businesses and the State.
“With 7,305 crimes spread across 370 central laws, the extent of criminalisation is vast and deeply entrenched in the legislative framework,” it says. Only a small share of the 7,305 offences relate to serious threats like public safety, national security, or protection of life.
“This unchecked growth of criminal law has eroded individual freedoms, stifled economic activity, and overburdened an already stretched criminal justice system. More fundamentally, it reflects a deep-seated lack of trust of the government in its own citizens, and in turn, a diminishing public trust in governance,” the report notes.
It advises that criminal law is the state’s most coercive tool for maintaining social and political order, and should thus be applied with restraint.
“Instead of being confined to addressing grave threats to public order or national security, it has expanded indiscriminately into civil, social, economic, and regulatory matters—becoming a tool for day-to-day governance,” it reads.
Of the 882 central laws currently in force, 42 percent or 370 laws contain criminal provisions, collectively criminalising 7,305 actions and omissions, it underlines.
The report underlines that more than 75 percent of all crimes are defined under laws that regulate subject matters, such as shipping, taxation, financial institutions, and municipal governance—unrelated to the traditional domain of criminal justice.
It gives some numbers: as many as 73 percent of crimes attract jail terms ranging from a single day to 20 years, an “alarming” 301 crimes in India are punishable by death, more than 2,000 crimes are punishable by imprisonment of five years or more, and 983 crimes carry mandatory minimum imprisonment.
As many as 112 laws contain general contravention provisions criminalising any non-compliance with any rules, regulations or provisions of the law, making the scope of criminalisation vague and unpredictable, it says, citing the Delhi Police Act, 1978, Indian Forest Act, 1927, Delhi Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1962, Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Electricity Act, 2003.
According to the report, 124 crimes across 80 laws criminalise obstructing a public officer. Notably, they don’t provide a clear definition of what amounts to ‘obstruction’.
The report also looks at how laws criminalise routine, everyday actions. Municipal laws criminalise actions, such as permitting any animal to be tethered in a public street; failing to comply with requisition to state the name and address of owners of premises, and doing plumbing work without being a licensed plumber.
Obscure crimes, such as parent failing to comply with an attendance order, applying for a driving licence when disqualified from holding one, flying a kite or any other thing so as to cause danger, injury or alarm to persons, animals or property also shows how criminalisation extends into trivial aspects of daily life, the report adds.
Further, a lot of criminal laws are for things that don’t seem criminal, it says. For example, one can go to jail for not reporting a treasure worth more than Rs 10, or not giving their dog enough exercise.
The Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 gives a six-month jail sentence for small paperwork errors, and the same punishment is given for something as serious as doing brain surgery without consent. Such mismatched punishments show that laws are not fair or logical, according to the report.
This growing number of criminal provisions is making the criminal justice system too heavy and unfair, especially for people who don’t have money or support.
It adds that many of these laws are leftovers from the British colonial period and haven’t been changed since.
The report points out that even though the Constitution promises free legal help, many people don’t know their rights. This means a lot of people end up in jail waiting for trials for small offences, sometimes for years. The marginalised communities are the most affected.
The report mentions the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, as a “significant leap forward”. The legislation decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 central Acts managed by 19 ministries/departments. The goal was to simplify punishments, ease pressure on the courts and prevent unfair or excessive enforcement.
It lauds the government’s proposal of a Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0, and urges lawmakers not just to make business easier, but to think about how laws affect people and make them partners in a fair and democratic system.
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Some civil remedies
The report argues that using criminal law to address routine regulatory failures—such as not maintaining a logbook or not exercising a pet—adds unnecessary legal and procedural burdens, exposes individuals to the risk of arrest, and overwhelms the criminal justice system.
According to the report, many minor infractions currently treated as criminal offences in India would be more appropriately handled through civil or administrative remedies.
It suggests that civil remedies—like fines, warnings, or administrative penalties—should replace criminal charges for non-serious and non-violent acts. It notes that ordinary people are punished for minor infractions “not through civil penalties or corrective measures, but through arrest, prosecution, and punishment”.
Under general considerations for drafting criminal provisions, the report recommends adopting alternative forms of punishment, prioritising “restorative justice and non-custodial mechanisms such as community service, monetary penalties, and diversion programmes for minor offences” over short-term imprisonment.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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