From January 1, 2027, procedures related to all investigations and trials under the new criminal laws will be recorded digitally, a senior Home Ministry official said on Tuesday (June 30, 2026).
The official said the nationwide rollout of the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) – which integrates police, courts, prisons, forensics, and prosecution on a single platform – is expected to be completed soon, with emphasis on end-to-end digital workflow.
The data will be stored in the government-owned cloud platform MeghRaj. However, data maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau showed that the First Information Report (FIR) consumption by courts, the process through which cases are electronically transmitted to and received by court systems, was at 46%, less than half of the cases registered.
The three new criminal laws Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita (BSS), and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced Indian Penal Code (1860), Indian Evidence Act (1872), and the Code of Criminal Procedure (1898) respectively. These came into effect on July 1, 2024, and in the past two years, 74.66 lakh FIRs have been filed under BNS. Since these laws require upgraded infrastructure and forensic capabilities, States and Union Territories have been given five years to implement all the pillars of criminal justice system.
Backing for zero-FIRs
As many as 63,572 zero-FIRs, those which can be filed irrespective of jurisdiction, have been registered under BNSS. Though the provision existed earlier, BNSS gave the provision a statutory backing. The official said that around 13,000 zero-FIRs were filed in different districts of the same State and fell under the category of “inter-State transfers”.
The Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems, the platform which is used to file FIRs across 16,000 police stations in the country, has an option to register cases in 23 languages and the Bhashini App can translate the zero-FIR to the language used in the jurisdiction concerned, the official said.
“A police person cannot turn away a complainant from filing a zero-FIR. Once registered, the case is transferred to the concerned police station and they can decide further upon inquiry, if they want to close the case or pursue the investigation,” said the official.
Out of 36 States and UTs, Haryana, Goa, Assam, Punjab, and Chandigarh have implemented all the parameters of the justice system, while 23 States, including Delhi, are above the national average. The official said due to connectivity issues, some of the northeastern States were lagging behind.
More forensic labs
As the new laws make forensic examination of crime scenes mandatory in cases punishable by seven years or more, as many as 25 new forensic laboratories (FSL) were added in the past two years, taking the total number of laboratories from 129 in 2023 to 154 in 2025.
While in 2023, the forensic labs received 8,44,589 cases for examination, out of which 4,64,879 were pending, in 2025, the cases received were 11,11,798 and 3,90,786 cases were pending. More than 7,700 mobile forensic units have been deployed so far.
After the new laws were implemented, the national implementation score increased from 46.47% (January 2025) to 70.06% (June 2026). The 60-day charge-sheet compliance rose from about 51% to 67%, and the 90-day compliance rose from about 40% to 61%. Additionally, 46.5 lakh digital evidence (Sakshya) IDs were generated, and 56.74 lakh e-summons were served. As on May 31, 2026, there are 37.68 crore police records, which include 9.9 crore FIRs and 7.64 crore chargesheets in the database, which can be accessed by police and investigating agencies.
The Ministry official said that improving internet connectivity, especially in remote and northeastern parts of the country, standardising processes across States, ensuring full interoperability among all criminal justice platforms and training of personnel were some of the challenges ahead.
Published – June 30, 2026 10:43 pm IST
