New Delhi, Sept 17: India is seeing an alarming gap between crime and punishment. The disposal rate of IPC cases countrywide came down by half during the past four decades even though the crime rate during the period went up eight-fold with the conviction dropping drastically.
According to the findings reported in the latest edition of Crime in India , a publication of the Home Ministry, 62.21 lakh IPC cases were pedning in different courts in 2001 as against a mere 8 lakh in 1961. In 2001, the number of such cases rose by 3.3 per cent compared to the previuous year.
"It is evident that the trials conducted by the criminal courts have not increased and matched in relation to the higher disposal of the police over the years. The ratio of disposal percentage of IPC cases by the police to Courts has been fluctuating around 80:20 during the past few years. This wide gap between the two needs to be reduced," the book said.
The study reveals that in seven States - Arunchal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and west Bengal - more than 90 per cent cases were awaiting trial in courts. Manipur topped the list with 97 per cent cases pending trials. Of the 2481 cases, which went to the Courts, only 53 were tried.

The findings see a "dangerous trend" in the alarming rise in the pendancy of cases relating to "heinous crimes" like murder, dacoity (88.9%), robbery (88.4%), culpable homide not amounting to murder (85.1%), and kidnapping (88.4 %).rate of IPC cases in the country in 2001 was a dismal 15 per cent as against 30.3 per cent in 1961. The break-up shows that convictions were the highest ( 67 per cent) in cases relating to sexual harassment whereas nearly 80 per cent cases of arson ended in acquittal.



Among the States, Nagaland recorded the highest conviction rate - 81.8 per cent against the national average of 30.5 per cent.



At the national level, 4.5 per cent trials were completed by the district/session judge, 8.3 per cent by the additional session judge, 17.2 per cent by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, 41.7 per cent by the Judicial Magistrate (1st class), 20.9 per cent by the Judicial Magistrate (II class), 4.1 pert cent by the Special Judicial Magistrate and 3.3 by other courts.



The study shows that out of 9,31,760 completed trials, 26,292 (2.8 per cent) dragged on for more than a decade while 13.1 per cent took between 5 to 10 years for completion. In 23.6 per cent cases, trial consumed between 3 to five years. A high per centage of 31.5 per cent cases ( mostly minor crimes) were completed within one to three years. The remaining 29 per cent cases were completed in six months to one year.



The growing gap between the soaring crime graph and the falling disposal rate of court cases underlines the urgent need for police and judicial reforms in the country."