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New Delhi, April 23, 2025: The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy today launched India’s first comprehensive criminal law database – The State of the System (S.O.S.), at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi. The event, titled Unveiling The State of the System, brought together an eminent panel of legal luminaries, policymakers, and experts to discuss the urgent need for decriminalisation and rationalisation of punishments in India’s legislative landscape.
The S.O.S. database, now live on crimeandpunishment.in, and the report documents every act and omission criminalised under 370 Union laws enacted over the last 174 years, spanning 45 subject areas. It is India’s first public repository of its kind and aims to empower citizens, researchers, and policymakers with a deeper understanding of the scope and extent of criminalisation in the country. It highlights inconsistencies in the prescription of punishments and proposes a principled framework to guide future efforts towards decriminalisation and criminal law-making.
Introducing the report, Mr. Naveed Mehmood Ahmad, Lead, Crime and Punishment at Vidhi, said, “The Criminal law that is meant to address serious threats to public order or national security, also extends into the social and regulatory fabric of India. The report and the database aim to understand how overly reliant we are on criminal law as a tool of governance and advocates for decriminalisation of minor offences and rationalisation of punishments in a principled manner.”
At the event, a panel discussion was also hosted featuring Mr. Sidharth Luthra, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Dr. Shamika Ravi, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and Justice V. Ramasubramanian, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission. The panellists reflected on the wide-ranging implications of excessive criminalisation from three perspectives: the citizen’s ease of living, the business community’s compliance burden, and the state’s resource allocation.
As the Union Government prepares to introduce the Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 and several state governments begin reviewing their laws to identify provisions for decriminalisation and rationalisation of punishments, the launch of the S.O.S. database marks a pivotal moment in this journey. As a living resource, it is expected to inform the ongoing decriminalisation efforts and other policy interventions towards limiting the reach of criminal law and moving towards trust-based governance. With this initiative, Vidhi aims to enable meaningful stakeholder engagement and contribute to building a legal system that is both equitable and efficient.
Some key points from the report:
Of the 882 central laws currently in force, 42% (370 laws) contain criminal provisions, collectively criminalising 7,305 actions and omissions
These range from minor infractions, such as failing to submit documents on time, failing to exercise a dog, or failing to file property tax on time, to serious crimes like illegal possession of arms, murder, and sexual assault
More than 75% of all crimes defined under these laws regulate subject matters such as shipping, taxation, financial institutions, and municipal governance – matters unrelated to the traditional domain of criminal justice
Under Corporate Law, 3 laws attract 262 crimes and under Intellectual Property Law, 5 laws attract 44 crimes with the Companies Act, 2013 containing 241 crimes
Under taxes, tolls & cess laws, 18 laws attract 265 crimes with the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 containing 45 crimes
Severity of Crime: Over 2,000 crimes are punishable by imprisonment of up to 5 years or more. 983 crimes attract a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment, with 106 crimes mandating a minimum of 10 years and 44 mandating a minimum of 20 years
About Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy:
Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy is an independent think-tank doing legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good. The Crime & Punishment team works on improving the responsiveness and effectiveness of India’s criminal justice system (CJS) through research on criminalisation, criminal law, law enforcement, and correctional institutions.
