Proceedings in Lok Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament on March 11, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Legislations on “habitual offenders”, which the Supreme Court had last year “urged” States to reconsider the need for, continue to operate across at least 14 States and Union Territories in India, the Government of India revealed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (March 11, 2025).
These include Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Telangana, among others. While States such as Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana have said that the law is practically redundant and not implemented, the Gujarat government has claimed that its law “does not intend to” harass or harm any community and has hence opined against its repeal.
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Uttar Pradesh has said that the provisions of the habitual offender legislation are already covered under the U.P. Control of Goondas Act, 1970, and hence it does not matter either way; whereas Telangana has called the law preventative more than punitive, and Goa has said that since there are no denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes in the State, there is no need for repealing the law.
In a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court last year on caste-segregation in prisons, the top court had questioned the very basis of a “habitual offender” classification, noting it was “constitutionally suspect”, given the “vague and broad language”, “which is used to target members of denotified tribes”. It had asked States to reconsider the use, further asking if it was needed at all.
Prison statistics
According to the latest available data (as of 2022) from the National Crime Records Bureau’s prison statistics, about 1.9% of India’s 1.29 lakh convict population have been classified as “habitual offenders”, with the highest proportion seen in Delhi, where 21.5% of convicts are classified as such.
The information on the operation of laws on habitual offenders was revealed in the Lok Sabha when the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment was answering a question from Maharashtra MP Prashant Yadaorao Padole of the Congress.
Minister of State for Social Justice B.L. Verma said given that these laws were State Acts, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has been monitoring the status of these laws from “time to time”. Mr. Verma added that the latest status of the laws for 26 States and Union Territories had been provided to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) by the respective administrations.
According to a table of information presented, a total of nine States have reported to the MHA that there are no “habitual offender” laws in their State, or that they had never been enacted, or that there were no tribals in their jurisdictions. These include West Bengal, Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Bihar and Sikkim. Further, the legislation had been repealed in Haryana and Ladakh.
Among the States where the legislation is operating, Punjab has said that it has not maintained a register of habitual offenders, nor have any orders been passed under it in the last five years; Andhra Pradesh has said that no one in their current jail population is in custody under the habitual offender law; and Odisha has said no cases have been registered under this law in the last five years.
While the response of Telangana does not specifically show the State government’s position on whether the law should be repealed, it has insisted that the law is redundant. Further, it has called it preventative, asserting that no one community has been notified as habitual offender.
Published – March 11, 2025 10:15 pm IST