What NCRB statistics says about Criminal Justice system in India?

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has published its ‘Crime In India – 2014’ report in its Website.  The following are some facts and figures related to disposal of Criminal cases by Police and Courts across the country. Report was published in July 2015.

Investigation and Trial

7229193 new crimes were reported in India in 2014. 9930625 criminal cases were tried in Indian courts in 2014 of which trial of 13, 41,386 was completed by the end of the year. In 55% cases tried, the accused were discharged or acquitted. Conviction rate is very low in rape cases (28%).The highest conviction rate of IPC cases was reported from Mizoram (92.9%) followed by Nagaland (84.7%), Kerala (77.8%), Puducherry (70.1%), Lakshadweep (68.3%) and Meghalaya (65.9%).

Among the specified crimes, the highest arrests were made in cases of ‘causing injuries by negligent driving/rash driving’ (10.4%) (3, 94,004 persons) followed by ‘Riots’ (8.1%) (3, 08,544 persons). The report also shows a drift of more young persons (18 yrs. – below 30 years) in crimes.

The report also reveals that the percentage of cases tried to total cases for trial during 2012 to 2014 was around 13% whereas four decades ago i.e. in 1974 this percentage was 27.8. The percentage of cases convicted to total cases tried (conviction rate) during 1974 was as high as 62.7%. The conviction rate declined in subsequent years and it stood at 40.2% in 2013 and in 2014 it stood at 45.1%.

It was also observed that the cases charge-sheeted to total true cases investigated increased considerably from 54.4% in the year 1974 to 79.2% in the year 2014 although the percentage of cases in which investigation was completed to total cases for investigation has declined from 80.9% in the year 1974 to 71.9% in the year 2014.

The trials were completed in 13.8% cases (1, 86,087 out of 13, 41,386) in less than 6 months. 2,63,559 cases were tried in 6 months – below 12 months accounting for 19.6% of cases. The trials were completed in 31.9% cases (4, 27,806 out of 13, 41,386 cases) between 1 year to 3 years. In 2,83,285 cases constituting 21.1% (1,42,565 cases) and 2.8% (38,084 cases) cases trials were completed between 5 years to 10 years and 10 years and above respectively.

There were 11, 23,423 cases related to Sexual offences for trial in the Courts across India, during the year 2014. A total of 26,660 cases were convicted during the year 2014, showing a conviction rate of 21.3.A total of 9, 82,516 cases remained pending for trial at the end of the year 2014.

State Crime Statistics

Kerala tops the list in offence against State crimes (72 cases) followed by Assam (56 cases) and Karnataka. 5 Sedition cases were registered in Kerala which tops the list. Kerala also leads in number of cases of crimes under offences promoting enmity between groups. Maharashtra has reported the maximum custodial deaths amounting to 21 followed by Andhra Pradesh (18) and Gujarat & Uttar Pradesh (8 each). Madhya Pradesh tops in Sexual offences and Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of cases of violent crimes. Delhi UT reported the highest crime rate (767.4) under IPC crimes followed by Kerala (585.3), Madhya Pradesh (358.5), Haryana (298.2), Assam (296.5), Rajasthan (295.1) and Telangana (294.5).

Read state wise statistics here.