Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 28 said the Centre has set a target of taking the conviction rate higher than even developed countries and integrate the criminal justice system with forensic science investigation.
The government aims to make forensic investigation "compulsory and legal" for offences attracting punishment of more than six years, Mr. Shah said addressing the graduating students of the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), Gandhinagar, at its first convocation.
The government will provide a forensic mobile investigation facility in each district of the country and create a legal structure to ensure that independence and partiality of the investigation is maintained, he said.
"Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, the central government is going to make changes in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Evidence Act, because nobody saw these laws from an Indian perspective after independence, he said.
"These laws need to be reframed from the perspective of independent India. Therefore, we have been consulting a lot of people to change the IPC, CrPC and the Evidence Act," he said while addressing the convocation as its chief guest.
"Under this, we are going to make the provision of forensic evidence compulsory and legal for offences attracting more than six years of punishment," the Union minister said.
"When forensic evidence will be made compulsory and legal for offences with more than six years of punishment, then you can imagine how many forensic science expert graduates and double graduates will be required," he told the gathering, adding that none of the graduating NFSU students will remain without placement.
On the occasion, Mr. Shah also inaugurated three Centres of Excellence in DNA Forensics, Cyber Security, and Investigative and Forensic Psychology at the NFSU, and said he is certain that they will prove beneficial for the country's criminal justice system.
"These three centres will also be the big centres of research and development apart from education and training...I can assure you that with the new journey in the field of research and development, India will become the global hub of forensic science in these three sectors. We will be at the forefront of the world in this direction," the Union minister said.
