NHRC Pushes for Integrated Forensic Infrastructure
in India's Criminal Justice System
Commission calls for unified forensic-police operations and a massive network of advanced labs to end justice-delaying report backlogs
On June 7, 2026, India's National Human Rights Commission held a pivotal Core Group meeting on criminal justice reforms, issuing strong recommendations to overhaul the country's forensic infrastructure and integrate forensic science into every stage of police investigation.
In a landmark meeting that forensic professionals and criminal justice reformers have long been awaiting, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) convened its Core Group on Criminal Justice System Reforms on June 7, 2026. The session placed forensic science squarely at the centre of India's justice reform agenda — with the Commission warning that delayed forensic reports are among the most serious structural threats to fair and speedy trials in the country.
The meeting, held in hybrid mode, was chaired by NHRC Chairperson Justice V. Ramasubramanian and brought together core group members, senior forensic experts, academicians, prosecutors, civil society representatives, and senior NHRC officers. The outcomes are expected to shape the Commission's formal recommendations to the Government of India on forensic infrastructure expansion and criminal procedure reform.
The Core Finding: Forensics Cannot Be Separated From Investigation
The most significant recommendation to emerge from the June 7 meeting was a firm call to end the siloing of forensic examination and police investigation. The Commission strongly emphasised that forensic examination and investigation must operate as a unified, integrated process — not as two independent tracks that meet only at the trial stage.
Investigation and forensic examination should be part of the process and not independent of each other. Increased systematic coordination between public prosecutors, forensic teams, and the police is essential.
— NHRC, Core Group Meeting on Criminal Justice ReformsThis reflects a persistent systemic problem in India's criminal justice ecosystem: police complete investigations, file chargesheets, and only then wait — sometimes for months or years — for forensic science laboratories (FSLs) to return results on evidence collected from crime scenes. Under the new Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure from July 1, 2024, forensic investigation is now legally mandatory for offences carrying a punishment of 7 years or more. But without an adequately resourced forensic ecosystem, this mandate creates demand that existing infrastructure cannot meet.
The Forensic Backlog Crisis: Why the NHRC Acted
India's forensic laboratory network — comprising 7 Central Forensic Science Laboratories (CFSLs) in Bhopal, Chandigarh, Kamrup, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi, and Kolkata, plus 32 State FSLs and 97 Regional FSLs — was designed for a pre-BNSS era of voluntary forensic referrals. The enactment of mandatory forensic investigation in July 2024 fundamentally changed the equation.
According to the India Justice Report 2025, pending cases in Indian courts have crossed five crore — a 20% rise in a single reporting period. Each district court judge faces an average burden of 2,200 cases. High Court vacancies stand at 33%, district courts at 21%. Into this already strained system, every missing or delayed forensic report creates another adjournment, another year lost, and in many cases, the grounds for a dangerous offender to walk free on default bail.
The Project 39A Forensic Science India Report (NLU Delhi) documented a 40% vacancy rate across 26 surveyed FSLs and massive underutilisation of approved funding. A 2022 Government of India scheme for the Modernisation of Forensic Capacities, with a budget of ₹2,080.5 crore, approved funds for 20 States/UTs — but had disbursed only about ₹200 crore as of late 2024, according to a Ministry of Home Affairs reply to Parliament.
Key Recommendations from the June 7 NHRC Meeting
The June 7, 2026 meeting produced a multi-pronged set of recommendations directed at the Government of India, state governments, and law enforcement agencies. These align with the broader thrust of India's new criminal laws while addressing specific institutional gaps. The major recommendations are summarised below:
| # | Recommendation | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massive expansion of technologically advanced forensic labs | Existing 7 CFSLs and 32 State FSLs are grossly insufficient for the post-BNSS demand surge |
| 2 | Integrate forensic examination with police investigation | Treat forensics as a live, concurrent process — not a post-investigation add-on |
| 3 | Systematic coordination between police, forensic teams, and prosecutors | Siloed operations cause evidence handling failures, chain-of-custody gaps, and inadmissibility |
| 4 | Mandatory forensic and trial-concept training for Public Prosecutors | Prosecutors must understand forensic evidence to present it effectively in court |
| 5 | Strengthen digital forensics capabilities | Rise of cybercrime demands specialised labs, software, and trained examiners |
| 6 | Address language barriers in criminal justice communication | Judgments delivered only in English remain inaccessible to most victims and accused |
| 7 | Combat "burking" of offences at the police level | Suppression of cases before FIR registration distorts crime data and denies forensic investigation |
Digital Forensics: The New Frontier
The NHRC specifically spotlighted digital forensics as an urgent priority in its June 7 deliberations. With cybercrimes — ranging from online financial fraud and social media harassment to ransomware and organised cybercrime — registering exponential growth year on year, the Commission highlighted that most state FSLs lack adequate infrastructure, trained personnel, and certified tools to handle digital evidence.
The BNSS, 2023 has already made provisions for audio-video recordings, digital records in interrogation, and electronic evidence as primary evidence under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023. But these progressive legal provisions remain toothless without matching forensic infrastructure. The NHRC's push for strengthening digital forensics echoes the findings of the All India Forensic Science Summit 2025, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah noted that the conviction rate currently stands at 54% — with digital and technical evidence increasingly determining verdicts.
For Forensic Science Aspirants: What This Means for Your Career
📌 Implications for Students & FACT / UGC NET Aspirants
- Demand for trained forensic scientists at state and central FSLs will rise significantly as new labs are established and existing ones are expanded
- The NHRC's push for integrated investigation means forensic officers will work alongside police investigators at crime scenes — widening the scope and impact of the role
- Digital forensics specialisation is now a high-priority government requirement — a strong career signal for those pursuing FACT Plus (Digital Forensics) or UGC NET Computer Science branches
- Prosecutors being trained in forensics creates new cross-disciplinary opportunities for forensic science graduates in legal and prosecution roles
- Expect new NFSU off-campus establishments and district-level lab postings to open up, especially in underserved states
- The MHA's 3-month compliance deadline (April–July 2026) means recruitment notifications for FSL posts across states may accelerate in 2026
Broader Context: The Policy Momentum Behind the Push
The NHRC's June 7 call does not come in isolation. It is the latest in a sustained policy momentum that began with the reconstitution of the Core Group on Criminal Justice Reforms and has accelerated since the enactment of the three new criminal laws in July 2024. The MHA's April 2026 directive to all states for a 3-month deadline on forensic reform, the Union Budget 2026–27 allocation of over ₹1,471 crore for forensic infrastructure, and the approval of 8 new Central FSLs across 8 states all point to a government that is no longer treating forensic infrastructure as an afterthought.
The India Justice Report 2025 further notes that with an undertrial population constituting 76% of all prisoners, the cost of forensic delay is not merely statistical — it is lived daily by tens of thousands of people awaiting justice. The NHRC's intervention ensures that a human rights lens is now formally applied to the forensic science ecosystem: delayed forensic reports are a human rights issue, not merely an administrative inconvenience.
Haryana offers a proof-of-concept: by investing ₹14.55 crore in advanced forensic equipment, increasing staff strength by 70%, and deploying four Mobile Forensic Vans, the state's FSL raised its monthly case disposal rate by 49% — moving from 1,526 cases per month in 2023 to 2,273 in 2025, and projecting a near-zero backlog by late 2025. If this model can be scaled nationally — with NHRC recommendations providing the normative push — India's forensic ecosystem could be transformed within a policy cycle.
Editorial Perspective: A Watershed Moment
India's criminal justice system has long operated on a paradox: it passed laws mandating science while starving the scientific institutions those laws depend on. The NHRC's June 7, 2026 meeting, by framing forensic infrastructure as a human rights imperative and recommending its structural integration with investigation, has the potential to break this paradox.
For the forensic science community, this is more than a policy headline. It is formal, high-level recognition that the work forensic scientists do — at crime scenes, in laboratories, in courtrooms — is foundational to justice itself. The Commission's word carries weight with the Government of India, and its recommendations, once formalised, will be difficult to ignore in budget allocations, legislative drafting, and state-level compliance frameworks.
The question now is implementation. India has a solid track record of ambitious forensic policy announcements. The harder test — absorbing funds, recruiting and retaining trained scientists, building accredited labs that produce court-admissible results on time — remains the real frontier.
📚 Sources & References
- National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) — Official Press Release, Core Group Meeting on Criminal Justice System Reforms: nhrc.nic.in
- News on AIR (All India Radio) — NHRC to seek significant increase in technologically advanced forensic laboratories: newsonair.gov.in
- Ministry of Home Affairs, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3452 (Dec 17, 2024) — Forensic Lab data & Modernisation Scheme: mha.gov.in
- Press Information Bureau — All India Forensic Science Summit 2025, NFSU New Delhi: pib.gov.in
- The420.in — India to Build Nationwide Network of Forensic Laboratories: the420.in
- Budding Forensic Expert — MHA Strict Directive on Forensic Reform, April 2026: buddingforensicexpert.in
- Budding Forensic Expert — The Backlog Crisis: India's Forensic Labs Are Drowning: buddingforensicexpert.in
- The Statesman — Haryana races towards zero forensic backlog: thestatesman.com
- India Justice Report 2025 — Judicial pendency and forensic vacancy statistics
- Project 39A Forensic Science India Report, NLU Delhi — 40% vacancy rate documentation
