HNLU And Chhattisgarh Police Second Capacity Building Programme On New Criminal Laws Series

The Second of the series of the HNLU-Chhattisgarh Police Department capacity building programme with a three-day deliberations from 27-29th May 2024 concluded successfully. The programme had its Inaugural Session on 27th with Justice P N Prakash, former Judge of High Court from Chennai as the Chief Guest and delivering the technical session and Prof Ranbir Singh, former Chairperson of the drafting committee of the New Criminal Laws and Distinguished Jurist Professor at HNLU as the Guest of Honour.

In his opening remarks, Prof. V.C. Vivekanandan, Vice Chancellor of HNLU highlighted that the New Laws are drafted with emphasis on electronic evidence for transparency and accountability. He also underlined that all new initiatives have to begin at a point of time and will get streamlined based on the operational experience of implementation of the Laws.

The Guest of Honour, Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir Singh, underlined the necessity for changes in criminal law and stressed the multifaceted role of enforcement officials, who must now act as both technocrats and socially sensitive agents.

Justice P N Prakash, in his address, spoke about the importance of collaboration between national law universities and police forces. He highlighted some challenges for the enforcement in the initial stages of its implementation and lauded the comprehensive structuring of the training programme as a major step in the capacity building exercise..

Earlier, Shri Ashok Juneja (IPS), Director General of Police, Chhattisgarh, welcomed the gathering and expressed that that the Ministry of Home Affairs has recognized and appreciated the efforts of the Chhattisgarh Police and HNLU for organizing such a well-structured and detailed training program, a first of its kind in India. 

The second phase of this three day event had DIGs and SPs which will be, followed by the third phase, which includes training of 6 batches of police force through modules of 5-day programs. In total, this initiative aims to train approximately 1000 senior police officers as master trainers. The program is designed and coordinated by the Centre for Comparative Law (School for Law and Governance) and the Centre for Law and Forensics (School for Law and Technology) at HNLU. 

The three-day program featured distinguished speakers such as Justice P N Prakash, Former Madras High Court Judge & Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of India; Dr. Neeraj Tiwari, Assistant Professor at National Law University, Delhi, Member of the Drafting Committee for Criminal Law Reforms, and Senior Consultant at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India; Mr. Raghavendra Srivatsa, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court; Mr. Srinivasa Rao, Senior Partner at Haranahalli Law Partners, Bengaluru; and Mr. Amit Pai, Advocate on Record at the Supreme Court. The Valediction of the programme was held on 29th May 2024.