ABANDON THE DOWRY SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION
“A Dowry is a gift of substantial monetary value given from either the bride or groom to their future spouse upon marriage.”
The dowry is a criminal ancient traditional activity which we have been following since ages. The culture of dowry differs from religion to religion and time period. We are surviving in a society where we have been told that it’s our culture to give dowry on occasion of their daughter’s wedding. You and I have the power to raise our volume up to take a stand against this system which we are following in the name of ceremonies. Don’t fulfil your greediness by calling it custom. The dowry system has become a common practice for families to exploit all over the world in some cases. Dowry has been considered as the basic function to serve as a form of protection for the wife against ill-treatment by her husband and his family. The country of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Greece and Kenya have special provisions and acts to deal with the issue of dowry because it has been practiced widely in such countries.
Dowry is any movable or immovable property or any valuable security given to the groom by the bride on the cherish occasion of their marriage. Any person demanding dowry from the bride shall be culpable for the offence of demanding dowry under Section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. The people who practice dowry had created the stigmas in the society and considered it as a conditional gift that is supposed to resort to the wife or her family if the husband divorce, abuses, or commits other grave offences against her. The term ‘Dowry’ is not just a word, it is an expression that has destroyed the financial credibility of so many households. The concept is not only practiced in India, but it is a global issue and especially practiced amongst Asia and Africa. It has been introduced mainly by the roman empire, they used to equip dowry to the groom or his family to offset the cost of her living expenses. In this era, people are considering dowry as a fashion or trend to make other people look that how wealthy they are but on the other hand it has become taboo for the community who can’t afford to give dowry on the occasion of their daughter’s wedding.
Marriage is an authentic relation where two souls promise each other to be on each other’s site even in the worst scenario and the family who is conferring her daughter which they have frost since the beginning is itself a huge sacrifice and they don’t need to promote such criminal activity by fulfilling their in-laws’ greediness. The Dowry system is a dominant issue which has been a humongous problem and provenance of embarrassment and great brawl in the society. The term ‘Dowry’ is considered as ‘Dahej’ in India, In China, it is considered as ‘Jiazhuang’ and In Russia, it is termed as ‘Posag or Pridannoe’. The main reasoning behind this was to give a comfortable start to the bride for her married life but nowadays, the melancholy truth is that the dowry is not given deliberately but it is being demanded by the families of the groom. It has become a full-fledged bargaining business today and has become the major controversy about a girl’s marriage and all other factors like a girl's family background, her qualifications, merits, etc. are of no value and has been set aside.
ORIGIN
The system of dowry was evolved in early ancient times. The practice of dowry was evolved as a concept of Kannyadaan (Voluntary Gifts) and Streedhan (Girl’s Property). Earlier the dowry was known as Kannyadaan, a voluntary gift given by the parents of the girl at her wedding and it is known as Streedhan, a women’s property but it is wistful that the bona fide connotation of dowry is different in the contemporary world. It is being forced on the family of the girl to give dowry for the marriage.
By the continual practice of such criminal activity, it has settled in the veins of the society and hollowed out inside and turned it into a social evil. It has been concluded in a research that every single girl in 5 girls have deteriorated the physical violence and emotional stress because they didn’t promote the check-list desires of their in-laws.
On one hand, In India, we have a factual history of praising the women and we have titled them as ‘Laxmi’ of the household. On other hand, we are encouraging such criminal activity just for the sake of our voracity, and looking for love in these non-living things and considering the daughter of another father unjustifiably, for not offering dowry, look for love in your partner instead of such non-living things because at the end when everyone will stand against you, she will be the one standing right next to you in your favour.
Why Dowry is Practiced?
Tradition – In Indian Society, we have a myth that dowry is a marital tradition which is prevailing over the centuries. Earlier, the parents of the girl used to give dowry on her wedding so that she could have a good beginning to her married life but today, it is being forced on the girl’s parents. They fulfil their immense greediness, despite thinking that whether the family have the resources to give such valuable assets or not. All the Subscribers of the Dowry system in India must be clear that no tradition allows to practice such dowry system, even it is illegal.
Greed - Since in the Indian society, the amount of dowry is decided by the groom’s financial status, therefore the greed of the groom’s family increases as soon as their son gets a good job and also every parent want their daughter to be married in a rich, well-settled family due to which they have to give a high amount of dowry.
Dowry is a subject of respect - People give dowry, just to show some fake tantrums in society that they how wealthy they are and they would become a controversial topic in everyone’s discussion. It has become a matter of respect, the more they give dowry, the more they will get respect in the society, which is ultimately promoting the dowry system in the society and becoming a matter of torturing the bride.
Ignorance of anti-dowry laws - The Dowry Prohibition Act was enacted in 1961 with a view to put a cogently stop to dowry practice but it has been seen time and again that the law is ineffective and the system is still prevalent and even it has increased since then. The laws are not enforced effectively due to which people don’t take the law seriously and every year more than 6,000 dowry death cases are being reported.
DOWRY CRIMES
India, the developing country of the world, where we have reached across the space and moon to research upon them are still fronting the internal matters of Dowry Crimes in India. It has turned into an alarming trend that sees approximately 20 women die every day as a result of harassment over dowry – either murdered by in-laws or compelled to commit suicide. Dowry has been one of the foremost issues which subscribe to the violence against women in India. Most of the case study says that sometimes people threat their daughter-in-laws and put them in a hypothetical situation, where the groom’s family demands for more dowry and they threaten the bride in order to extract more dowry from the bride’s family and they are left with no other option but to fulfil the dowry demands of the groom’s family in order to save their daughter from such extortion, cruelty, physical and mental violence. The black face of this brutal reality is not only practiced in rural areas but even in the educated family sitting in metropolitan cities as well and they harass or destroys the mental agony of women for not getting enough gold or money from their paternal house. There are several types of dowry crimes which are as follows:
Cruelty: Cruelty in any form such as using force against the bride or verbally abusing her in order to meet the demands of the dowry is a dowry crime. Sometimes the family of the groom use force, mentally torture the bride and as a result, bride commit suicide. Domestic violence is another example that is used by the bride’s family to meet their dowry demands.
Domestic violence: Domestic violence means exploitation of physical and mental force against the brides. Groom’s family uses such forces to meet their dowry demand. They adopt abusive and threatening behaviour which includes physical, mental and sexual violence as well as coercion and sometimes confinement within four walls. There are laws to this effect i.e., The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and we have to go a long way in order to curb these practices in India.
Dowry murder: Dowry death and dowry murder are correlated where suicide or killing of bride is committed by the husband or the husband’s relative soon after the marriage when they are not satisfied with the dowry. Continuous harassment, abuse and physical torture by the husband and his relatives lead to the Abetment to suicide or killing of the bride. In most of the dowry death cases, women are of young age who are unable to bear the harassment, torture and end up giving their lives. Bride burnings are an alternative form of dowry death/murder which is considerably practiced. Apart from this, strangulation, poisoning, acid attacks, etc. are leading forms of dowry death.
LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR DOWRY
Attributable to the dowry system, the bride’s family is being put under numerous financial burdens by the groom’s family due to which the crime against the women also rises, such as emotional, mental, physical abuse and harassment or sometimes it also leads to death of the brides. Indian laws have prohibited the dowry system by enacting various laws such as The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 followed by Indian Penal Code, 1860 and; Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961
Section 2 of the Act defines Dowry as “any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly-
a) by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage: or
b) by the parent of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person,
at or before [or any time after the marriage] [in connection with the marriage of the said parties, but doesn’t include] dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies.
Section 3 of the Act defines the Penalty for giving and taking Dowry, and it says that if any person after the commencement of the Act gives or takes, abets the giving or taking of dowry shall be punishable with an imprisonment for a term not less than five years and with fine which shall not be less than fifteen thousand rupees or the amount of the value of dowry, whichever is more.
Section 4 of the Act defines the Penalty for demanding Dowry and it has stated that if any person demands, directly or indirectly, from the parents or other relatives or guardian of a bride or bridegroom, as the case may be, any dowry, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months, but which may extend to two years and with fine which extends to ten thousand rupees.
Section 4-A of the Act defines the Ban on an advertisement, which says that the advertisement in any newspaper, journal or through any other medium or a share in the property, business, money, etc by any person in consideration for marriage shall be punished with an imprisonment which shall not be less than six months and which may extend to five years or with fine which may extend to fifteen thousand rupees.
Section 5 of the Act talks about the agreement for taking or giving dowry i.e., any agreement for talking or giving of dowry shall be void.
According to Section 7 of the Act, a judge not below the rank of a Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of First Class shall try an offence under this Act. The court shall take cognizance of the offence only on the report by the victim, the parents or relative of the victim, police report or on its own knowledge of the facts of the offence.
As per Section 8 of the Act, Certain offences under this act shall be cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.
The Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 304 B – Wherever if the death of the women is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called “Dowry Death” and such husband or relatives shall be deemed to have caused her death.
Whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life.
Section 498 A - Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty- Whoever, being the husband or the relatives of the husband of a woman, subject such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation: In this section, the term “cruelty” means any willful act or omission which is of such nature to drive the women to commit suicide or to cause grave injury to the life or health of the woman. Or; Harassment of the women where such harassment is with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand.
Indian Evidence Act, 1872
Section 113 B – When the question is whether a person has committed the dowry death of a woman and it is shown that soon before her death such woman had been subjected by such person to cruelty or harassment for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry the court shall presume that such person had caused the dowry death.
Explanation: Dowry Death shall have the same meaning as in section 304B of the Indian Penal Code.
Is dowry only practiced in India?
The Social evil of Dowry is practiced across all over the world, not only India is the country that subscribes to the dowry practice. The more we are proceeding towards the development, the more we are endorsing the dowry system in the society, it is not also practiced in rural areas but the miserable part is that it has been widely practiced by well-educated people in metro cities as well, it has become a social cause or taboo. Thousands of women across the world have been subjected to being burnt, scalped and imprisoned in their homes daily by their in-laws because they haven’t fulfilled the hunger of dowry of their in-laws. Women are facing violence or harassment on a daily basis because their parents were not wealthy enough to give dowry on the occasion of their daughter’s marriage. Nepal, Pakistan, Kenya, Greece, Australia, Sri Lanka and many more countries are there in the list which are facing the cases of violence or harassment against women in respect of not completing the dowry demands.
LANDMARK JUDGMENTS ON DOWRY
Sushil Kumar Sharma v. Union of India, AIR 2005 SC 3100
The petitioner under Article 32 of the Constitution challenged the validity of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code to be Unconstitutional. The petitioner argued that the section is for the protection of women from dowry crime but nowadays, it is being misused to harass the innocent husband’s family.
The constitutional validity of the S.498A was assailed on four grounds:
that, it has been grossly abused by married women to harass their husbands, in-laws and relatives by instituting frivolous and unfounded criminal proceedings;
that, it has become an easy tool in the hands of the Police and other agencies, like the Crime Against Women Cell, to hound the accused persons with the threat of arrest making them run here and there till they get anticipatory bail as the offence has been made cognizable and non-bailable;
that, the investigating agencies and the courts start with the presumptions that the accused persons are guilty and the complainant is speaking the truth;
that, it has been exploited by the women and their relatives to such an extent that the provision has become most ineffective in curbing the evil of dowry as well as disciplining the husband and his relatives to treat the wife with respect and honour.
After hearing the arguments from both the sides, the Supreme Court while repealing the petitioner's arguments, upheld the constitutional validity of S.498A. It held that mere possibility of abuse of a statutory provision does not per se make a provision of law objectionable and ultra vires to the constitution.
Keshab Chandra Pande v. State, (1995) Cr Lj 174 (Ori),
The accused married the deceased in January 1989. There were differences between them due to the non-fulfillment of dowry demands made at the time of marriage. The accused assaulted the deceased in June 1989 with an iron rod. The deceased went to stay with her parents there thereafter. She returned to her matrimonial house in January 1990, after some mediation between them by well-wishers. In March 1991, the accused left the deceased in her parent’s house. After about a fortnight, she came back to the house of the accused. Two days after that, she died. There was no material evidence to show that after her return in January 1990, she had been subjected to any cruelty or harassment by the accused. It was submitted by the prosecution that the assault by iron rod in June 1989, must have left an indelible scar in the mind of the deceased. However, the court felt that if she was so upset or affected by that assault, she could not have waited for about two years to vent out her feelings, that too after having reconciled in January 1990. In view of this, the court held that there was no proximate link between the cruelty based on dowry demand and the concerned death. The Orissa High Court acquitted the accused.
Manju Ram Kalita v. State of Assam, (2009) 13 SCC 330
In the above-mentioned case, the wife alleged physical and mental cruelty against her husband and accused him under Section 498A of Indian Penal Code. Further, the court has given its decision in this case that the term “Cruelty” as mentioned in Section 498-A of IPC is to be established in the context of Section 498-A IPC as it is different from the other statutory provisions. It should be determined by considering the conduct of the man, evaluating the gravity or seriousness of his acts and to find out as to whether it is likely to drive the woman to commit suicide, etc. It is to be recognized that the woman has been subjected to cruelty endlessly or at least in nearby proximity of time of lodging the complaint. The Court further held that petty quarrels cannot be termed as “Cruelty” to attract the provision of Section 498-A of IPC.
Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273
In an endeavour to ensure that police officer does not arrest the accused unnecessarily and Magistrate does not authorise detention casually and mechanically in cases under Section 498-A IPC, the Court gave certain directions (however, the directions apply also to other cases where offence is punishable with imprisonment of not more than seven years) which include:
Police officers not to automatically arrest the accused when a case under 498-A IPC is registered. They should satisfy themselves about the necessity of arrest under parameters flowing from Section 41 CrPC (the judgment lays down the parameters).
Police officers shall fill the checklist (containing specified sub-clauses under Section 41(1)(b)(ii) CrPC) and furnish the reasons and material necessitating the arrest.
The Magistrate will authorise detention only after recording its satisfaction on the report furnished by the police officers.
If the police officers fail to comply with the directions, they will be liable for departmental action as well as punishment for contempt of Court.
Failure of the Judicial Magistrate to comply with the directions will render him liable for departmental action by the appropriate High Court.
MISUSE OF DOWRY LAWS BY WOMEN
The anti-dowry laws were made to protect the interest of women and securing them from harassment and violence in respect of dowry demands but it has been experienced that most of the women are using such provisions as fake in order to get good compensation from their in-laws at the time of settlement or dissolution of their marriage. It has been conducted in a survey that not all dowry cases filed by women are true and in more than 40% of cases filed; the allegation made by women are fake.
Many fake cases have been filed in misusing the provision for its own motive or in order to give torture to the husband’s family. The women should not misuse the very own Section which is made to protect her. However, a mere possibility to misuse the provision should not invalidate the provision. Hence Section 498A is Constitutional.
The two-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad recently in a 21 pages order said that the simplest way to harass the husband is to get him and his relatives arrested. The Judges stated a notable point that in many cases the bedridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands, their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested. The Judges also reminded the authorities that they must follow a so-called nine-point checklist that has been part of the anti-dowry law before nothing down a dowry-related complaint. The court also said that in case the police make an arrest, a magistrate must approve further detention of the accused.
CONCLUSION
The practice of promoting this social evil from which the whole world is suffering was evolved early in the ancient times. Earlier, Dowry was given to the bride as a gift for her future so that she can start her married life happily but nowadays, it has become a social cause and the practice of dowry is deeply rooted in Indian society. We are experiencing and seeing every day that how the dowry system has destroyed the life of married women, who didn’t promote the dowry system in their marriages. Thousand of the cases have been reported every day, where the women had gone through violence or harassment in respect of dowry demand. In India, the girl is accepted only when she brings wealth with her to a matrimonial home. Boys have been given the chance to get highly educated so that the family of the boy can ask for more dowry, but we have to take stand in one unit, in order to stop this auction of our boys. It is extremely miserable to say that a girl is not accepted by what qualities she possesses but she is accepted by how wealthy her family is and how much they are going to give in dowry.
Though the laws have been made to curb the practice of dowry but this social evil cannot be eradicated completely from society unless people change their mindset. They themselves have to say no to dowry and stop this practice. The laws can be made strict but it cannot be completely implemented unless society becomes aware of the anti-dowry laws and the bad consequences of the dowry practice. It can only be stopped if society understands that the practice of dowry is bad and it is not in the interest of society.
“The Article “Abandon the Dowry System” has been written by
Parmeet Singh (Advocate) and Raj Vardhan Upadhyay (Advocate),
who had put their joint exertions in order to make people cognizant of the law,
that the practice of dowry is Illegal and enclosed the legal aspect of the issue that
how one can overcome from the dowry issue and what are the legal remedies available
for the person in order to raise their volume up against the dowry system,
which has turned into a Social evil nowadays."
INTRODUCTION
The United Nations hosted the very first conference on the Human Environment which was held in 1972 in Stockholm (Sweden), and officially it is known as the Stockholm Declaration of 1972. The conference was held for a basic common outlook on how to address the challenge of conserving and enhancing the human environment. In 1968-1969, by resolutions 2398 and 2581, the general assembly decided to conduct the conference in Stockholm in 1972 on a global level where all countries could take part in. The main principle of the Stockholm declaration was “to serve as a practical means to encourage and to provide guidelines to protect and improve the human environment and to remedy and prevent its impairment”. The conference’s preparatory committee had worked on the declaration in 1971 with the actual drafting of the text allocated to an intergovernmental working group. At the request of China, the special working committee reviewed the text and reduced it to 21 principles and brought up 4 new principles. Brazil objected for the same, then the working committee was removed for reviewing the text and the work was referred to the general assembly for further
consideration, a draft principle on “Prior Information”.
STOCKHOLM CONFERENCE
The Stockholm Conference was the first conference conducted by the United Nations Conference on Human Environment that focused on Environmental Issues at the International level. This conference was organised in Stockholm (Sweden) from 5th to 16th June 1972 and it was the very first conference which communicated the Environmental Issues at the International level and tried to find a way to tackle the air, land and water pollution by working together as a unit to safeguard the human environment for a better tomorrow. The Stockholm Conference also led the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in December 1972 to coordinate the global efforts to safeguard our natural human environment.
The proposal of the Stockholm Conference was made in 1968 in Sweden and contended that the United Nation must hold an International conference to examine environmental issues that required International cooperation to solve the problems related to environmental pollution. The Stockholm Conference was attended by 114 government delegations. At the time of the Stockholm Declaration, 26 principles were broadly declared to recognize the human impact on the environment, and that was for the first time in history that the environmental issues had been recognised publicly on a global scale. The conference came up with several frameworks for environmental actions, an action plan containing 109 recommendations related to human settlements, development, natural resource management, educational and social aspects of the environment, pollution and International organizations.
STOCKHOLM DECLARATION
The Stockholm Declaration of 1972 broadly recognizes global issues and has eventually come up with 26 principles and with some frameworks as well to bind all the countries together to deal with these environmental issues. The conference has created history in the world by addressing environmental issues at the global level. The Stockholm Declaration accentuated the needs of the nations to design development plans with the combination of science and technology in order to lessen air, land and water pollution and human impact on the environment. The main purpose of the Stockholm Declaration was to save the world from all the evils that were destroying the environment, to preserve natural resources, to control the pollution and to protect from several other environmental issues. In other words, we could say that the main purpose was to save the earth, there even is a slogan of the Stockholm Declaration, 1972 i.e., “Only One Earth”.
The Declaration urges every country to create regulations for protecting wildlife and natural resources that are available in that country and suggests that every country create national population policies since overpopulation is also one of the major causes why we are left with limited natural resources today.
IMPORTANT PROVISIONS
The Stockholm Declaration, 1972 comprises the proclamation of 26 principles and several other submissions of recommendations. Every principle which is laid down in the Stockholm declaration is an important provision of the declaration. These 26 principles are as follows:
Principle 1: Right to Protect Environment
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which talks about Right to life includes Right to a healthy environment as well, It is the human right of a man to live in a healthy environment and to protect the environment and the human can take any legal action against the one who is destroying the environment, as the right to a healthy environment is a fundamental right of a person.
Principle 2: Management of Natural Resources
The human must manage the natural resources available on earth and it applies to all the natural resources which include air, water, land and samples of the natural ecosystem so that the upcoming generations would also be able to enjoy the natural resources. But this requires accurate planning and management and this would happen only if we safeguard our natural resources today, only then we could achieve our goals and save the natural resources for future generation.
Principle 3: Management of Renewable Resources
In the war of saving our resources, the human community needs to come up as one unit to maintain the capacity of the earth to produce vital renewable resources.
Principle 4: Conservation of Wildlife
The humans shall take it as a responsibility to safeguard and manage the heritage of wildlife and its habitat, which are now in danger because of the acts done by them. Everyone has to come up as one unit for working effectively to protect our nature including wildlife and must understand the importance of nature in planning for economic development.
Principle 5: Management of Non-Renewable Resources
As we all are aware of the fact that we are today left with very limited non-renewable resources, we must contribute in order to save our non-renewable resources which are available on earth and must employ them in a way to guard against the danger of their future exhaustion and must ensure their benefits are shared with the whole mankind.
Principle 6: Pollution Control
The main causes of pollution are the gases, liquid substances, toxic substances or other substances which industries or mills discharge and such quantities of harmful substances pollute the environment in which we live. Every person should put their possible efforts and should protect the environment from pollution. Everyone has to struggle a bit to control the pollution on the earth so that everyone enjoys nature without pollution.
Principle 7: Prevention of Pollution of Seas
The State government shall take some major actions to protect the seas from pollution, especially from the industries that are polluting the rivers by discharging hazardous chemicals in it and from the tourists who throw plastic in rivers and other substances that are hazardous to human health and to living resources as well.
Principle 8: Economic and Social Development
Economic and Social development is essential for ensuring a comfortable living but the act done by humans shall not affect the environment. The working environment of men is necessary for the improvement of the quality of life but the act shall be in such a way that our environment does not suffer due to that and we would be able to live in a pollution-free environment.
Principle 9: Underdevelopment and Natural Disaster
Environmental deficiencies generated by the conditions of underdevelopment and natural disasters can best be remedied by investing in substantial amounts of financial and technological assistance.
Principle 10: Stability of Prices of Primary Commodities
The stability of prices and adequate earnings for primary commodities and raw materials are essential for
environmental management in the developing countries.
Principle 11: Environmental Policies
The government should introduce some environmental policies for controlling pollution and for the development of countries so that pollution does not affect the present and future generations. The State should adopt an integrated and coordinated approach to developing such plans.
Principle 12: Environment Protection Education
Humans need to be educated about environmental protection to make them much aware about the issue. It is essential and it should be communicated to humans by conducting skits or through media or any other medium to make people aware of the environmental crisis so that people would work effectively to control the pollution by putting their efforts.
Principle 13: Rational Management of Resources
It is essential for every State to adopt an integrated and coordinated approach for the development of the country and every plan must work in an effective way. The purpose behind is to achieve the rational management of resources.
Principle 14: Rational Planning
Rational planning is an essential tool for confirming any clashes between the needs of development and the need to protect and improve the environment.
Principle 15: Human Settlement
The settlement of the human community must be planned and organised well for the purpose of avoiding the effects on the environment.
Principle 16: Human Population
The government has to introduce some policies for controlling the population and must work according to such policies, with the view for controlling the population on the earth as it is one of the major issues of the earth and we should work effectively to control it. Today most of the countries have a large population and increasing population growth has adverse effects on the environment.
Principle 17: Setting of Environmental Pollution Control Agencies at National Level
For the purpose of saving the environment, the government must establish Environmental Pollution Agencies at national level and shall grant them the power to control the pollution at the national level. The agency must be established with proper planning and management to control the pollution and protect the resources.
Principle 18: Use of Science and Technology
In this generation Science and technology have developed completely and it is suggested that the government should take some help of science and technology to control the pollution and save the environment for a better tomorrow. Science and technology must work in a manner to control environmental problems and must come up with new research and innovations.
Principle 19: Education in Environmental Matters
The earth is suffering from pollution and it is essential to educate humans about environmental matters to make people aware of the issues of the environment, so that every individual, enterprise and community could put their joint efforts for protecting and improving the environment in its full human dimension.
Principle 20: Further Scientific Research
The government must promote new scientific research and innovations for the development in the context of environmental problems in all the countries, especially in the developing countries.
Principle 21: Rights and Responsibility of Sovereign Nation
It is the right of the Sovereign Nations to exploit their own resources in pursuit of their own environmental policies. The sovereign nations must look towards the activities of their nation and must take care that it would not affect the environment in their jurisdiction and shall not cause damage to the environment of other states or areas beyond the limits of their national jurisdiction.
Principle 22: Development of International Law
It is important that every State should cooperate to develop International law regarding liability and compensation for the ones who are polluting our environment, as we all have to fight as one unit to protect our environment against the pollution.
Principle 23: Implementation of Agenda by Every Country
Without prejudice to such criteria as may be agreed upon by the international community, or to standards which will have to be determined nationally, it will be essential in all cases to consider the system of values prevailing in each country, and the context of the applicability of standards which are valid for the most advanced countries but which may be inappropriate and of unwarranted social cost for the developing countries.
Principle 24: International Cooperation
Every country on the earth should contribute on an equal level towards the International law for protecting our environment and our natural resources. For the improvement of the environment it must be handled in a cooperative spirit by all the countries as a union.
Principle 25: Coordinated and Dynamic Role
The International organisations play an efficient and dynamic role for safeguarding and improving the environment and every state must ensure that to every human.
Principle 26: Ban on Nuclear Weapons
No country should use the nuclear weapon against any country, nuclear weapons must be eliminated by every
country.
EFFECTIVENESS
The Stockholm Declaration had created history in the world as it was the very first conference held by the United Nations on the subject of Environmental issues at the global level. The Declaration proclaims that the human are both the creature as well as the moulder of the environment and it gives them physical sustenance and affords the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth. The purpose behind holding this Stockholm declaration was to emphasize various nations and to make the citizens of nations aware of the environmental issues which affect the well-being of people and economic development throughout the world. It is the responsibility of every nation and every person to come up with some necessary measures for management and planning in order to save our environment which is badly polluted today because of the acts we do in our daily routines which are harming our environment. To achieve such a goal of a pollution free environment, every citizen of every country must contribute towards it by putting their common efforts. Humans should know their responsibilities towards nature and must act accordingly.
CONCLUSION
Lastly, I want to conclude the article by saying that the Stockholm Declaration had created history in the world as it was the first conference which was hosted by the United Nations on environmental issues at the global level. The conference emphasizes various nations to come up with innovative plans in order to lower the air, water and land pollution. 114 other countries had also attended the conference. The declaration was made to achieve environmental goals, to live in a pollution-free environment, save the earth from every type of abuse against the environment and the slogan of the declaration was also “Only One Earth”.
The declaration proclaims that humans are both the creature and the moulder of the environment and we are only responsible for the situation we are suffering from today. Every individual should know their responsibilities and must perform some acts for the protection of the environment and earth for a better tomorrow. At the time of the conference, 26 principles were declared and the principles assert that the government has to take necessary steps to protect the nature or environment such as, for the Management of the natural resources- If we save natural resources today only then we could save them for the next generation also, Conservation of wildlife- Protecting forests for the animals, Controlling pollution- Closing industries that are discharging toxic chemicals in water and closing industries that are polluting the air in which we breathe, Environment protection education- Making people aware of the environmental issues by the medium of media or any other mediums, by these things the citizens would be much aware of the fact and shall contribute their best for the protection of the environment.
According to the research, most of the environmental problems in developing countries are caused by underdeveloped countries. The purpose of the declaration was to work together and fight together against environmental issues so that every country would contribute their common efforts and every country would come up with innovative plans with the help of science and technology and tackle this environmental issue as a whole.
REFERENCES
PDF on Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
PDF on The Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment by Locis B. Sohn.
Thefactfactor.com
"This article is written by Parmeet Singh and the same is also published on the website of ipleaders (LawSikho) as well https://blog.ipleaders.in/major-provisions-in-the-stockholm-declaration/"
RELEVANCE OF RIDGE V. BALDWIN IN INDIA
In this case, the principle of natural justice has been infringed, however, In the Constitution of India, the expression of Natural Justice is nowhere used. However, the golden thread of natural justice sagaciously passed through the body of the Indian constitution. The preamble of the constitution includes the words, ‘Justice, Social, Economic and Political’ liberty of thought, belief, worship, and equality of status and of opportunity, which not only ensures fairness in social and economical activities of the people but also acts as a shield to individuals liberty against arbitrary action which is the base for principles of Natural Justice”. In this case, Mr Ridge contended that his principle of natural justice has been infringed by the watch committee by dismissing him from the police service without even stating the grounds of his dismissal, and not giving the opportunity of being heard. He further contended that the act done by the watch committee is fully wrongful and voidable.
BACKGROUND FACTS
The appellant was a chief constable of the country Borough of Brighton and he has served for 33 years in the Brighton Police Force. On 7th March 1958, the Police authority during the time of Watch Committee decided that the appellant, Mr Ridge should be dismissed, and the appellant then maintained that the resolution was void and of no effect, because he was not given any notice on the grounds on which the committee proposed to act and he was not given an opportunity to be heard in his own defence. On 25th October 1957, the Appellant had been arrested, on a charge of conspiring [make secret plans jointly to commit an unlawful or harmful act] with the senior members of the Police Force and others to obstruct the course of justice, and had been suspended from the Police Force on 26th October. The appellant was acquitted on 28th February, but the other 2 members of the force were convicted. The appellant was further accused of the charge of corruption and was again acquitted on 6th March because no evidence was found against the appellant during the time of trial. Then the Watch Committee met and decided to dismiss the appellant from the Police Force. The power of dismissal is contained in Section 191(4) of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1882.
“The watch committee, or any two justices having jurisdiction in the borough, may at any time suspend, and the watch committee may at any time dismiss, any borough constable whom they think negligent in the discharge of his duty, or otherwise unfit for the same.”
The appellant maintains that the Watch Committee ought to have proceeded in accordance with regulations made under Section 4(1) of the Police Act, 1919, the section authorises the secretary of the state to make regulations as to, inter alia, and the condition of services of members of the police forces in England and Wales. Regulations were duly made by the secretary of the state, but the respondent was denying continuously that this does not apply in this case.
The appellant’s case is that according to the Municipal Corporation Act, 1882 the watch committee was bound to inform the appellant of the grounds on which they proposed to act and give him an opportunity of being heard for his own defence which is said in the principle of natural justice as well. The law of master and servant is not in doubt and the master can terminate the contract at any time with the servant for any reason or for none but it is also contained that if the master does in such a manner and breaches the contract then he must pay the damages to his servant. In this case of master and servant here the question arises whether the facts emerging at the trial prove breach of contract. The present case does not fall under such rule of master and servant because the chief constable here is not a servant of the watch committee.
In the present case, an unbroken line was found of the authority which says that an officer cannot lawfully be dismissed without telling him what is alleged against him and without hearing his defence. It may be convenient at this point of time, even if it is a general rule but the watch committee must hear a constable in his defence before dismissing him because the principle of natural justice also says that the person must be given an opportunity of being heard. The case is so clear that there was nothing that the appellant could have said could have made any difference.
MAIN ISSUES
The appellant had served for 33 years in the Brighton Police force. Further, On 7th March 1958, the appellant had been wrongfully dismissed from the police force by the watch committee and he was not given the opportunity of being heard in order to explain himself and defend himself. The appellant further contended that it was an unlawful dismissal and his principle of natural justice has been breached by the watch committee. Such dismissal was ultra vires and unlawful.
Section 4(1) of the Police Act, 1919 authorises the secretary of the state to make regulations. The regulations were duly made by the state but the respondent was denying that it does not apply in this case.
The question which arises here, in this case, is whether the facts emerging at the trial prove breach of contract or not.
ARGUMENTS
The arguments were raised by the appellant that in a proceeding under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 the watch committee was bound to hear the appellant, as the principle of natural justice, that before reaching to any decision they were bound to let the appellant know about his ground on which they proposed to act and give him a fair opportunity of being heard for his own defence. The appellant contended that Section 4(1) of the Police Act 1919 authorises the secretary of the state to make regulations as to, inter alia, and conditions for all the members of the police forces in England and Wales.
The respondent affirms that there are many cases where a man holds an office at the pleasure but do not have the right of being heard, there was a case, Terrell v. Secretary of state for the colonial and other, 1953 it was held in this case that such an officer has no right of being heard before he is dismissed, and the reason is clear. In Rex v. Mayor of Stratford, 1670 1 Lev 291 (It was held in the case that the person who is having power of dismissal need not have anything against the officer, and the officer is not under any condition to specify the reason of the dismissal). The leading case on this matter is Darlington School Case (1844) 6 Q.B. 682, (The judgment of the case was given by Lord Hatherley, and he held that he completely agreed that where an officer is simply appointed at the pleasure the person having a power of dismissal cannot be bound to disclose the reason of his dismissal)
The appellant affirms that it is convenient at the point to deal with an argument that, even if it is a general rule, the watch committee must hear a constable in his own defence before dismissing the person, this case is clear and nothing has been said by the appellant. It is very doubtful whether that could be accepted as an excuse, but even if it could, the respondents would fail on the facts. But as the two other courses were also open to the watch committee so the case is not so clear. On the facts, the watch committee could reasonably have decided to forfeit the appellant’s pension rights, but the appellant could not hold that the watch committee had acted wrongfully or wholly unreasonably if they had in the exercise of their discretion decided to take a more lenient course.
Further, the appellant argued that he does not hold that compliance with all the rules is by implication a condition precedent to the power to dismiss under Section 191(4). But if one of the regulations itself imposes that it is another matter. The appellant argued that Article 5 of European Convention on Human Rights provides that the case shall be heard by a tribunal appointed by the Police Authority and Article 11(1) of European Convention on Human Rights provides that the decision of the police authority shall be either to dismiss the case or to impose various punishments which include dismissal as well. The power of dismissal under Section 191(4) is not distinctive from the power of dismissal which is given under Article 11(1), and Article 11(1) is to make the power of dismissal conditional upon the receipt of the report and as there is no report at all and no enquiry to make such report. According to the study, the statutory authority to dismiss was never created so that the act of dismissal was a nullity. The Lordship should allow the appeal and declare such dismissal to be void.
JUDGMENT
In the judgment, Lord Reid held that in the view after he takes this case there is not much to say and he said that he can usefully say about the principle of natural justice and their application to the procedure under Section 191(4) of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1882. Whether they are to be applied to any statutory procedure depends upon an implication to be drawn from the statute itself or not, and the question whether such an implication should be drawn in this case cannot be answered without consideration of the Police Act 1919, and the regulations which have been made by the State under Section 191(4) cannot be divorced. Since the regulations themselves prescribe the rules of justice that are to be followed, and the judge contended that it seems that there is nothing to be gained by seeking to ascertain what the position would be if the Discipline Code did not apply.
Further, It was held that there are three points, on which Lord Reid desires to comment upon. Firstly, he expresses no dissent from the view that if Section 191(4) stood alone the decision to be made under it is not purely administrative.
Secondly, he does most emphatically dissent from the view that natural justice did not require the watch committee to hear the appellant because he had an opportunity of putting his case before the trial judge. The appellant has not been compelled to put any case at all before the trial judge; he was there to answer an indictment on trial by jury. It would be quite wrong if an accused was to be embarrassed in the conduct of his defence on a criminal charge by the reflection that if he did not also satisfy the trial judge about the propriety of his actions in other respects, it might thereafter be the worse for him.
Thirdly, if there was apart from the regulations a miscarriage of justice, in this case, he agreed with the opinion of his noble and learned friend, Lord Evershed, for the reasons which he has given that the miscarriage rendered the committee’s decision voidable and not null and void ab initio.
RELEVANCE IN INDIA
The case of Ridge v. Baldwin has enormous relevance in India. India obeys the judgment which is given by the House of Lords, in the particular case. India has cited the judgment of this case in various cases. The Supreme Court of India had cited this judgment while dealing with the case of State Bank of Patiala & Ors vs S.K.Sharma, 1996, in which it was said that there was a considerable argument in Ridge v. Baldwin that whether the decision of watch committee’s was void or merely voidable and the Supreme Court also stated that a decision given without regard to the principles of natural justice is void and that has been decided in this cited case.
Lord Reid held that the duty to act judicially must arise from the very nature of the function intended to be performed, and it need not be shown to be superadded. Justice Krishna Iyer quoted Prof. Clark in his article “Natural Justice: Substance and Shadow”, and he is of the view that the observation of Lord Reid has restored light to an area “Benighted by the narrow conceptualism of the previous decade”.
This development of law is traceable in India also where the Supreme Court was of the view even before the Ridge v. Baldwin that if there is a power to decide and determine the prejudice of a person, the duty to act judicially is implicit in the exercise of such power.
The decision of Ridge v. Baldwin is cited in several cases, almost before every High Court of India. The Gujarat High Court had also cited this landmark judgment in the case, East India Co. vs Official Liquidator And Anr, 1969 and say that the decision given in breach of audi alteram partem would not be considered as a nullity, but it would be considered as voidable at the discretion of the court only.
CONCLUSION
The appellant, in this case, was the chief constable of Brighton, England and he had been dismissed from the Police Force by the watch committee in the exercise of its power which is conferred to them under Section 191(4) of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1882. The appellant was not given the opportunity of being heard, for his own defence, before dismissing him from the service, and he contended that according to the principle of natural justice, the opportunity of being heard is given to every individual and the act done by the watch committee is fully wrongful.
The appellant states that the watch committee ought to have proceeded in accordance with regulations made under Section 4(1) of the Police Act, 1919, which authorises the secretary of the state to make regulation and the regulations were duly made, but the respondent maintains that they do not apply in this case. Lord Reid and Lord Hodson considered the matter that the decision taken by the watch committee which terminated the services of the constable as void because the rule of fair hearing had been violated.
“This article is written by Parmeet Singh and the same is also published on the website of ipleaders (LawSikho) as well https://blog.ipleaders.in/relevance-ridge-v-baldwin-india/”
CONVENTION ON THE TOKYO RULES
INTRODUCTION
The draft of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures are Intended to promote community involvement in the management of criminal justice for the prevention of crimes in the society and to treat the wrongdoers and this initiative was developed by the Asia and far east Institute. The committee was made with the intention to treat the offenders and to let them know about their sense of responsibility towards the society, with close cooperation with experts from various parts of the world, who are most effective in preventing crime and improving treatment to the wrongdoers.
The Tokyo Rules were adopted by the first United Nations Conference for the betterment of the prisoners, and the conference for the Tokyo Rules was held at Geneva from 22 August to 3 September 1955 and was approved entirely by the Economic and Social Council in its resolution 663 C (XXIV) of 6 November 1957. Various organisations like intergovernmental or non-governmental had also contributed their level best to the final level of the draft United Nations standard minimum rules for non-custodial measures, in particular, the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation.
At the time of Implementing the draft of the Tokyo Rules, this has been decided by all the member states that every member state of the conference of the Tokyo rules shall endeavour to ensure a proper balance between the rights of offenders, the rights of victims and the concern of society of public safety and the crime prevention. Every state who all are the members of the convention shall have to develop non-custodial measures in their legal systems as well for the purpose of providing the various options, such as reducing the use of imprisonment and to defending criminal justice policies, needs of social justice and the rehabilitation needs of the offenders. When the eighth conference took place, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for non-custodial measures, in its resolution 45/110 of 14th December 1990 and approved the recommendations of the committee that the rules be known as the Tokyo Rules.
The General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to bring up some necessary actions to prepare a commentary to the Tokyo Rules so that it would be submitted to the committee at the time of twelfth conference for approval and further paying exception observation to the legal safeguards, the implementation of rules and the development of similar guidelines at the regional level. The Tokyo Rules is an important convention and was made for the purpose of representing some Important steps that have been taken for increasing the effectiveness of society’s response to crime. One of the major goals of the Tokyo Rules is to accent the importance of non-custodial sanctions and measures them for dealing with offenders. In Tokyo Rules, the term “non-custodial measure” refers to the decision which is made by the competent authority as a whole, which requires a person who is suspect/accused/sentenced of an offence to submit to certain obligations that do no cover imprisonment, at any stage of the administration of criminal justice.
LEGAL SAFEGUARDS OF THE TOKYO RULES
The Introduction, definition and application of non-custodial measures shall be exclusively based on law. It is the responsibility of the law to describe which authorities would be responsible for the implementation of non-custodial measures and the law should also provide the basis of their work.
The selection of the non-custodial measures shall take place within a clear framework and criteria should be set up in respect of what kind of offence he has done, nature and personality of the offender, background of the offender, the purpose behind sentencing such an offence and the need to give attention to the rights of the victim.
Discretion by the judicial and other competent authority shall be exercised in accordance with lawful principles.
Non-custodial measures relate to the persons who all are accused but not convicted yet, particular safeguards must be provided to them and the consent of accused and suspected persons are essential before the imposition of any such measures. Rather than imposing measures on the offenders, we should give them all the rights and deal with it in a formal proceeding.
Decisions on the imposition of non-custodial measures shall be subject to review by a judicial or other competent independent authority, upon application by the offender. It, therefore, is important in protecting the lawful rights and human rights of the offenders against arbitrary decision-making. He must be informed of the rights secured to him and must be given to him.
The offender shall be allowed to make requests and complaints to the judicial or other competent authority if his individual rights are affected by any individual, in the implementation of non-custodial measures. The offenders shall also be given their rights as they are also a human being.
States should establish machinery who will consider the offenders whose basic human rights have been abused to seek redress. Such machinery should work to make the offenders aware of their basic human rights and relevant information should also be given to them for the redress of grievances.
Even the offenders have the right to security and none authority could infringe their right which is secured to them. Non-custodial measures shall not allow medical or psychological experiments on offenders, which means that no experiments would be done on the body of offenders which would put the physical health and psychological health of the offenders at risk.
Non-custodial measures involve dignity as well and such dignity shall be protected to the offenders at all times.
The offender’s rights shall not be restricted in any way in the implementation of non-custodial measures, it was authorized by the competent authority that rendered the original decision that no rights shall be restricted to the offenders.
Non-custodial measures involve the right to privacy as well and it is the special importance given to the offenders that the right to privacy of offenders and his family members shall be respected by the competent authority.
The offender’s personal data shall not be shared with any person and shall be kept strictly confidential to the third parties. Only the people who are directly concerned with the offender’s case and other duly authorized persons shall have access to such records.
SCOPE
The United Nations standard minimum rules provide basic principles to encourage the use of non-custodial measures and to protect some minimum safeguards for the persons subject to imprisonment. Minimum safeguards shall be provided to all the offenders no matter whether they are suspected, accused or sentenced. The non-custodial measures emphasize that rules shall be applied to all the people without any kind of discrimination on any individual on the basis of race, religion, caste, creed, language, colour, sex, age, nation or social origin, property, political or other opinions, birth or another status. The authorities shall have to put forward some possible steps in order to eliminate discrimination and ensure equal access to non-custodial measures and equal treatment.
The main aim behind introducing the Tokyo Rules was for the protection of the offenders and to avoid unnecessary use of imprisonment. The development of non-custodial measures should be encouraged by every country and most of the countries have already developed the concept of non-custodial measures such as community work, victim-offender reconciliation, compensation orders and probation of assistance. Non-custodial measures should be used in accordance with the principle of minimum intervention. The use of non-custodial measures should be in such a way towards restricting and eliminating the use of criminal law and the number of the person affected by it as the social environment changes and respect for individual rights and freedoms as set out in International Instruments.
ADVANTAGES
Prisoners shall have to clean their prison’s by their own and keep it clean and hygienic. They shall be provided with enough water and with proper toilet articles and with sanitary facilities, these things are necessary for the health and cleanliness. Particular attention needs to be paid to the needs of women prisoners, such as sanitary towels that need to be provided without any charge and regular supply of water for their personal care.
Every prisoner shall be provided with proper clothing according to the climate and it is their responsibility to keep them in good health. Clothing shall be properly clean and shall be washed accordingly for the maintenance of hygiene. Whenever a prisoner is taken outside for an authorized purpose, he shall be allowed to wear his own clothes instead of the clothes provided to him by the jail authorities.
Every prisoner shall be provided with the good food full of nutrition for good health and strength, of wholesome quality and the food shall properly be cooked and served by the administration. Clean water which is suitable for drinking shall be available to every prisoner at every time.
Proper equipment shall be provided to the prisoners to exercise and do outdoor activities in the premises of the prison only and shall allow them to play sports and doing exercise only if the weather permits.
There shall be at least one medical officer available at every institution who should have some knowledge of psychiatry. Every medical service shall be provided to the prisoner as well and special treatment shall also be provided to the prisoner’s who are in a state of mental abnormality. The services of a dental officer shall also be provided to prisoners.
Prisoners shall be allowed to contact their family members outside and their reputable friends at regular intervals but that shall be done under the necessary supervision.
Every institution shall have a library and every prisoner shall be allowed to use the books of the library and there shall be adequate stock with recreational and instructional books and prisoners shall be allowed to make full use of it.
Every prisoner shall be allowed to follow their religion and if most of the prisoners are of the same religion then a representative of such religion shall also be appointed for them.
Upon the death, or serious illness, or any kind of serious injury, or his removal from the prison for any medical treatment, the authorities shall have to inform the family members of the prisoner about the situation.
There shall be a proper inspection to be done by the inspector to make sure that the prisoners are acquiring the services or not which have been appointed by the competent authority.
DISADVANTAGES
Suspects after being apprehended are usually placed in police detention for 23 days and during the time they have to go through the lengthy interrogation sessions by the police for obtaining the confessions of the persons. Police threat the people at the time of interrogation.
Most of the cells are extremely small and large numbers of prisoners live in single-cell only and it is really uncomfortable to settle up there.
Most of the time the relationships of the prisoner’s breakdown due to his imprisonment.
Whenever the imprisonment has been sentenced to the offender the family of the offender also suffers a lot through the shame and even the society doesn’t allow them to live freely.
If a person went to prison it makes it difficult to get a job on release which can lead the offender back into crime.
CONCLUSION
The Tokyo Rules are officially called as the United Nations Standards Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures and this convention was the result of global discussion and exchange of experiences and the Convention of Tokyo Rules was initiated by the Asia and Far East Institute. The purpose of the Tokyo Rules was to prevent the crime and treat the offenders in Tokyo and make an authority to secure the rights and freedoms of the offenders so that they would also be treated like a human being and several rights which have been secured to them shall be provided to them. The Tokyo Rules represented an important step in increasing the effectiveness of society’s response to crime. Non-custodial measures play an important part in criminal justice in many different cultures and legal systems.
REFERENCES
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/tokyorules.pdf
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/147416NCJRS.pdf
“This article is written by Parmeet Singh and the same is also published on the website of ipleaders (LawSikho) as well https://blog.ipleaders.in/convention-on-the-tokyo-rules/”
ALGORITHMIC DECISION MAKING
Algorithmic Decision System is also known as ‘ADS’. The Algorithmic Decision System helps to analyze huge amounts of personal data, to conclude the correlations, and generally, it derives information which is useful to make decisions. Algorithmic Decision Systems have been used from the very beginning for credit decisions, and in the present time, it is universally used for the purpose of employment screening, insurance eligibility, and marketing. Algorithmic Decision making is also used in the public sector for providing the government services and sentencing in criminal justice and probating the decisions. Today most of the decisions are generally made by computer algorithms because the computer has the advanced capabilities and has access to huge stores of data. The human being could make such decisions by their own, but still most of the people prefer the ADS method as it has advanced capabilities.
The advanced statistical techniques of Algorithmic Decision System seeks to find patterns in data without requiring the analyst to specify in advance with factors to use. They will often find new, unexpected connections that might not be obvious to the analyst or follow from common sense or theoretic understanding of the subject matter. As a result of that, they could help to discover new factors that would improve the accuracy of eligibility predictions and the decisions that are based upon them. In most of the cases, they improve the fairness of these decisions by expanding the pool of qualified job applications to improve the diversity of a company’s workforce.
ALGORITHMIC DECISION MAKING
Algorithms decision-making is a process for taking up decisions according to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and without human intervention. Algorithmic decision making for individuals is a decision based solely on automated processing. Algorithmic decision making is of a low impact if it does not have any effect on data subjects and does not even deprive people of getting their legitimate rights. Furthermore, even if the decision of Algorithmic decision making is binding for individuals and it violates the rights of an individual, then one should not be worried, because there are sufficient safeguards provided by the law for the protection of an individual. The notion of Algorithmic decision making is not a unitary concept but as per my understanding about the agenda, I believe that it comprises only a particular type of a decision, the Algorithmic decision making is broad, multifaceted and prone to be provided into several sub-categories. It is essentially important to distinguish between the automated decision-making, the procedural and the substantive before analysing the provisions mentioned in the GDPR the directive on Data Protection in Criminal Matters.
Algorithmic decision making is an automated process which makes a decision with the help of an algorithmic. As per the reading, I have observed that there is no such a common definition across the literature of algorithmic decision making. In the current era, the majority of the decisions are taken with the help of an algorithmic only, and the more data is increasing, more and more complex decision making is also increasing and the algorithmic intervention has become almost indispensable. There are certain safeguards which have been provided in algorithmic decision making, whenever a decision making is allowed, the data subject has to be provided with appropriate safeguards. The main purpose behind providing such safeguards is to prevent the individual from wrong or any kind of discriminations decision or a decision that violates the data subject’s rights and interests.
WORKING
In the present time, it is quite hectic to create ADS that are safe, secure, privacy-preserving, fair and explainable and it requires much more research to make it fall under certain conditions. While taking up any decision with the help of Algorithmic decision making it should always be in our minds that even well-engineered computer systems can create unexpected errors sometimes and unexplained outcomes for several reasons and we should have to put much more effort into creating it in such a way so that it could not come up with such errors.
Therefore, if we discuss about “safety”, ADS is a process which could cause unexpected and negative consequences in the environment. It would happen only when the training environment and the operational environment do not match, and the government is in the operation of working to make a balance between the training environment and the operational environment so that a better safety shall be provided to the ADS.
Further, if we discuss “security” ADS, it is the most complex system and it also subjects to many different types of attacks. The integrity and availability of ADS can be threatened by polluting its training dataset and by attacking its underlying algorithm and by exploiting the generated model at run-time, but we also need to know that the government is under operation to protect the database of an individual and make it much more secured and safe to each and every person so that no other person could get the information of any individual.
Therefore, it has been concluded that the ADS are complex systems and it is difficult to understand. ADS which rely upon machine learning are extremely challenging to understand and to explain since the models are generated automatically in it from training data.
The government is doing back-breaking work to put efforts and researching a lot to make the ADS more secure, safe, private, fair and available to each and every person. Further, if we talk about the “Privacy” ADS are trained on personal data. ADS model have been attacked several times to retrieve the information of the ADS model, and due to these attacks, only privacy concerns have been raised. It has been stated that we need to put much more effort into research to propose privacy-preserving ADS that achieve acceptable performance and privacy trade-offs and the government is also working with the team to make it private to everyone so that privacy of any individual shall not be violated.
MAJOR ISSUES
Risks of ADS for Individual
ADS disables the fundamental principles of equality, dignity, privacy, autonomy and free will, and it poses the risk factor to health, quality of life and physical integrity. The ADS leads to discrimination and it has been extensively documented in many areas, such as judicial systems, credit scoring, targeted advertising and employment. And we all are completely aware of that discrimination which results in daily lives which arises different types of biasness from the training data, technical constraints, or societal or individual biases. There should be a comparison between the risk of discrimination while the use of ADS and the risk of discrimination without the use of ADS.
Risks for the public sector
There are several risk factors of the ADS as well that ADS can be misused by states at the same time to control people, for example by identifying political opponents. Some of the organisations or States use these technologies to control the influence of citizen behaviour. These types of technologies are not so safe and it could be used by any individual to distort the information to damage the integrity of democratic discourse and the reputation of the government or political leaders.
Risks for the private sector
There are various risks which exist in the private sectors. It is a prime target for ADS when the tasks that are repetitive or pressured by time or tasks that could benefit from the analysis of high volumes of data.
Safety Issue
It has been reported by the majority of the states and organisations that the ADS model has safety issues. It is an important issue to consider in ADS, especially the failure of the physical system in ADS may cause fatal damages. There are several ADS failures which have been addressed with ad-hoc solutions, the ADS could cause harm to the sensitive information and It is most essential to give a definition of a unified approach to prevent ADS from causing unintended harm.
Integrity and availability Issue
ADS should not jeopardise integrity and availability. It is essential to guarantee that the integrity and availability are secure against malicious adversaries. It would be accessible to give first preference to their security properties in the context of these algorithms. The existing protection against mechanisms is not sufficient and it requires more research to be perfect.
Confidentiality and privacy Issue
Confidentiality and privacy is also an issue of ADS, for example, they can try to extract the information from any sources about the training data or they could even try to retrieve the ADS itself. Such type of attacks raise privacy concerns only as training data is likely to contain personal data. Other proposals rely on the distribution of the learning phase so that the training data does not leave the device which collects them, but this is not sufficient enough to secure the system, we need to work more to find some privacy solutions which is necessary.
Fairness (absence of undesirable bias)
ADS are based upon machine learning algorithms using collected data. This process of algorithmic for making decisions includes multiple potential sources of unfairness. As per the research, I have come to the conclusion that many definitions of fairness are actually conflicting. Several research groups and organisations have also started working on the design of fair ADS.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, I want to conclude the article by saying that the automation introduces more than just automated parts and it transforms the nature of the interaction between human and machine in profound ways. We need to keep our eye on these systems to look and see what these systems are actually doing to make it secured and better for every individual. As Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. Firstly, we have to examine the discriminatory effects to take steps to remedy potential bias in these systems. The first essential thing is that we need to measure the extent to which these systems create disparate impacts because it is really not possible to manage what you do not measure. It is essential to note the requirements for explainability that varies from one ADS to another, because as per the potential impact of the decisions made and whether the decision-making process is fully automated.
The needs for transparency and explainability are essential to reduce the ADS risks. I have found that accountability is the most important requirement for the protection of the individual. The transparency and explainability allow for the discovery of deficiencies but it does not provide absolute guarantees for the reliability, and security, and fairness of an ADS. The accountability also does not provide the guarantee but if certification is rigorous and audits are conducted on a regular basis, potential issues can be discovered and corrective measures are taken.
Algorithms Decision Making are increasingly used for getting access to information regarding e-commerce, employment, health, justice, policing, banking and insurance and recommendation systems. ADS can provide the best benefits to each and every individual and for organisations, both working in the public sector and the private sector. And we should be aware that the ADS also rises the variety of risks, that are discrimination, unfairness, manipulation and privacy breaches. The main purpose of the ADS is to assess the actual and potential extent of Algorithm decision-making and its risks and opportunities, for not only the current use but for the future use as well. The main preference should be given to technical aspects, to broaden the discussion, legal, ethical and social dimensions are considered.
REFERENCES
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2019/624261/EPRS_STU(2019)624261_EN.pdf
https://towardsdatascience.com/the-hidden-dangers-in-algorithmic-decision-making-27722d716a49
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337902605_Algorithmic_Decision-Making_and_the_Control_Problem
“This article is written by Parmeet Singh and the same is also published on the website of ipleaders (LawSikho) as well https://blog.ipleaders.in/algorithmic-decision-making/”