Law Faculty Development Programme

Solan, August 9

The 7-day online Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on the Changing Dimensions of Crime and Criminal Justice in India concluded successfully.

The FDP was inaugurated by Prof Sanjeev P Sahni, Advisor to VC, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat. He stressed on criminal psychology and discussed different traits of a person that lured a person to a life of crime. He also talked about the behavioural aspect of crime. This session was moderated by Prof Renu Pal Sood.

Prof Akshat Mehta, Dean, Police Administration, Rashtriya Raksha University, Gujarat and Ms Bindu Rani Sachdeva, DIG, Principal, Central Detective Training Institute, Chandigarh, talked about the Need for Police Reform for Effective Pre-trial Investigation of Crime. They emphasised the supremacy of the Rule of Law, the recommendations of various commissions for the need for police reforms and improvement of the criminal justice systems. The speakers stressed on the shift from a ruler-oriented to a rule-oriented police system. The session was moderated by Ms Anupriya Thakur, Assistant professor, School of Law, Shoolini University.

Interacting at the session, Mr Sandeep Dhawal, SP Cyber Crime, Himachal, shared his practical experiences. He talked about how the investigation is conducted in cyber cases and shared the data of pre and post-pandemic cases. Professor Dr Sanjay Sindhu, the director at HP Institute of Legal Studies, highlighted the urgent need to make the provisions under IPC with the Information Technology Act. The session was moderated by Ms Monika Thakur.

During another session, Prof Mohammad Tariq, Professor of Law at AMU, Aligarh, gave an insight into privacy laws in India and their correlation with the criminal justice system. Sh BL Soni also discussed the principle of evidence and its role in a criminal trial. Dr CM Gupta was the moderator of this session.

Prof Shruti Bedi, Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Adv Dr Deepak Jindal, Advocate Punjab and Haryana High Court, highlighted the problem of pendency of Criminal litigation during the pandemic. A total of 67,279 cases are pending with the Supreme Court of India and a whopping 57.53 lakh in the High Courts. Subordinate courts are sitting on 3.81 crore cases. The session was moderated by Ms Swati Soni.

Prof Balram K Gupta, the Director, Judicial Academy, Chandigarh, and Prof Kamaljeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, MLU Cuttack, were present at the valedictory and gave valuable insights into the light of Supreme Court judgements. Prof PK Khosla, Chancellor Shoolini University and Prof Atul Khosla, Vice-Chancellor, Shoolini University, were chief guests for valedictory and thanked the speakers and various resource persons of the FDP.

Convener of the FDP, Prof (Dr) Nandan Sharma, said about 70 academicians from reputed universities participated in the Faculty Development Programme. The programme was conducted with an objective to delve into, deliberate and generate awareness among the teaching professionals. He also thanked his team for the successful completion of the FDP.