Integration of Central Agencies with CCTNS

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has stated that the data of Central agencies such as CBI, NIA etc., should be integrated with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS).

What is Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System?

• CCTNS is a programme through which around 16,000 police stations all over India have been connected so that their data could be shared.
• This programme was implemented by National Crime Records Bureau.

What will be the benefit of integrating the data of Central agencies with CCTNS?

• Data collection of criminals and criminal activities in India would be complete.
• This will make tracing the criminals and their crime history easy.

The second phase of ICJS

• The second phase of the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) will be implemented by the Centre Government by the year 2026.
• ICJS is an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs to enable seamless transfer of data and information among different pillars of the criminal justice system, like courts, police, jails and forensic science laboratories, from one platform.

What are the features of ICJS?

• The ICJS system would be made available through a dedicated and secure cloud-based infrastructure with high speed connectivity.
• Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) is a national platform for enabling integration of the main IT system used for delivery of Criminal Justice in the country by five pillars namely:-
• Police (Crime and Criminal Tracking and Network Systems)
• e-Forensics for Forensic Labs
• e-Courts for Courts
• e-Prosecution for Public Prosecutors
• e-Prisons for Prisons
• In Phase-I of the ICJS project (2018-2022), individual IT systems have been implemented and stabilized; also search of records have been enabled on these systems.
• Under Phase-II (2022-23 to 2025-26), the system is being built on the principle of ‘one data one entry’ whereby data is entered only once in one pillar and the same is then available in all other pillars without the need to re-enter the data in each pillar.

Which is the implementing agency of ICJS?

• National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be responsible for the implementation of the project in association with National Informatics Center (NIC).  
• The project will be implemented in collaboration with the States and Union Territories.

What will be the benefits of ICJS?

• With the aid of the ICJS platform, the metadata of FIR and charge sheet can be accessed by all the High Courts and subordinate courts.
• Documents like FIR, case diary and charge sheet are uploaded by police in PDF format for utilization by the courts.
• The ICJS platform is an effective tool for the case and court management, as all the relevant information of a case will be available in real-time for use by the courts.
• Compliance of judicial orders and summons can also be achieved expeditiously, ensuring effective time management.
• The ICJS is going to be a milestone to enhance the productivity of the criminal justice system both qualitatively and quantitatively.