Over the years, the Crime & Punishment team has examined the working of India’s criminal justice system and the critical issues that confront it. These include studying the implementation of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 in Punjab and Mumbai; evaluating the system's role in addressing crimes against women; and assessing the government's use of criminal law during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through our research, it has become evident that criminal laws are used to address various social, health, and governance issues. However, criminalising drug use has marginalised addicts and drug users instead of providing them with necessary support. Similarly, addressing the multifaceted issue of violence against women solely through the CJS has proven inadequate. Moreover, employing criminal law as the primary response to the pandemic highlighted our misplaced priorities.

This approach has created a system where punishment and deterrence are seen as the primary means of ensuring compliance with social and regulatory norms. The drafting, use, and misuse of these laws, and their impact on various sections of Indian society, provide evidence that the use of criminal laws in India is unreasonable and unprincipled.

Our current work focuses on reimagining India’s approach to crime and punishment. We advocate for the decriminalisation of minor offences, the rationalisation of punishments, and the adoption of principle-based criminal law-making practices. We are doing this by:

• Understanding the state of the system: Unearthing the extent of criminalisation in India, the nature of offences, and the scope of punishments.
• Building a foundation for reform: Documenting India’s criminal law-making practices and studying international best practices, to inform reforms in India’s criminal law-making and efforts towards decriminalisation.
• Preparing an evidence-based roadmap: Developing strategies for the decriminalisation of minor offences, the rationalisation of punishments, and the adoption of principle-based criminal law-making.
• Informing the public narrative: Engaging with the general public and shaping discourse on crime and punishment.

We envision an equal and empowered society where every citizen feels respected and supported by the system that governs them. In such a society, laws and the system must be fair, reasonable, and principled — responsive to changing times, empathetic to all individuals, and free from the overreach of excessive criminalisation.

Through our work on Crime and Punishment in India, we strive to understand India's evolving view on crime, punishment, and expectations from criminal law. By documenting the extent of criminalisation in Indian laws and the systemic challenges that affect individuals navigating the criminal justice system, we aim to reimagine what should count as a crime in 21st-century India, how punishments can fit the crime, and what a modern and a progressive criminal justice system should look like.

We work towards a curious and contemplative discourse, informed by a diversity of points-of-view — one that shuns easy binaries for nuance, and takes a critical lens towards systems, while having empathy for individuals.

We believe that all people deserve an equal and high quality of life, and the systems that govern them should enable and not encumber this.

We believe that citizens are entitled to be governed by laws that reflect contemporary realities, and wish to challenge complacencies in the prevailing thinking and processes behind law-making.

We believe in lawmaking that is grounded in principle and evidence, informed by multiple perspectives.

We believe in engaging with existing systems in order to change them, in accordance with our beliefs and findings.

We believe that our lens is but one essential one in a larger ecosystem of actors working towards systemic change. Thus, we endeavour to be consultative and collaborative.

We believe that public sentiment has an instrumental role in the creation of a climate that is conducive to systemic change. Thus, we believe in sharing our work with the public.