Even as Union Law Minister Verappa Moily is mulling reforms in the judicial system, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is planning to organise a national consultation on Criminal Justice Reforms on December 11 and 12 in an effort to bring about awareness among general public. At the end of the seminar, a report will be prepared and submitted to the law ministry, Vijay Raghavan, faculty, Centre for Criminology and Justice at TISS.

“Unlike reforms in other sectors introduced by the government, criminal justice reforms are never discussed with public and popular opinion is always sidelined. It is only the top functionaries who are aware. We feel that there needs to be a public debate,” said Raghavan.

Elaborating on some ‘uninformed decisions’ taken post 26/11, Raghavan said that not many of the suggestions given by different government appointed committees have been implemented and there is not awareness about them either. “People need to make informed decisions rather than knee-jerk reactions which are very often introduced in the name of reforms.”

Director of the institute Ruchi Sinha said that what was important was bringing about structural, basic changes in the system.