“Reform Express” and 24×7 Justice Delivery

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Surya Kant on New Year’s Eve said, ‘Constitutional courts will function like hospitals with emergency rooms. In the event of a legal emergency, a citizen, regardless of his status, can knock on the door of the Supreme Court, even in the middle of the night, to demand immediate relief from grievances and protection of his individual rights and freedoms.

The CJI has created four categories of disadvantaged sections for hearing of cases on priority; these include the differently abled, the elderly, acid attack survivors and people below the poverty line. Another Supreme Court circular imposes strict timelines for lawyers to complete their claims; CJI states that Senior Advocates will no longer be allowed to discuss important matters together for days.

In a recent social media post, Prime Minister Modi talked about the “Reform Express 2025” and praised India’s “growth story” and “the quiet, cumulative work of governance that is removing bottlenecks week after week”. 2025 has indeed been a landmark year in which many important reform ideas towards the 2047 vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ have been implemented. These reforms span sectors and range from new legislation to more procedural changes that have enormous potential to catalyze impact.

1. Jan Vishwas: As part of the reforms and deregulations, 71 Acts have been repealed through the Repeal and Replacement Act, 2025. Thanks to this legislative reform, more than 200 minor crimes were decriminalized by Parliament. It has simplified compliance burdens and aims to increase the ease of doing business. A similar practice is currently being implemented by many states. In the National Capital Delhi, the state government has passed the Jan Vishwas Bill (2025), which, if passed in the state assembly, will amend seven laws to decriminalize a number of offences. In this way, criminal proceedings will be replaced by penalties through fines and civil lawsuits, which are sufficient according to the government.
2. Tax and Investment: Following the US tariff restrictions, the government simplified the GST regime to include only two rates, 5% and 18%, to reduce classification disputes and tax burdens for MSMEs. On the direct tax front, the Income Tax Bill 2025 aims to simplify provisions and reduce litigation and compliance burdens. According to the new regime, income tax is not collected on income over 100 TL. 12 lakh disposable income. The government also introduced the Securities Market Bill to consolidate multiple laws into a single framework that strengthens the management and protection of millions of investors. Five key Maritime Bills were developed and passed to support modernization, ease of documentation and general administration, while reducing disputes.
3. Amnesty Program: There are more than 72 thousand customs cases pending in the courts, with collectible debts of INR 24,016 crore as of December 2024. Customs-related cases are ongoing in matters involving more than Rs 1.36 lakh crore due to stay orders and for which the appeal period has not expired. The government stated that it is discussing the 2025-26 customs amnesty plan in the Union Budget to remove this huge backlog. The Ministry of Finance has also taken a significant step towards resolving the long-awaited GST disputes by allocating benches to the newly appointed 83 members of the GST appellate tribunal (GSTAT).
4. RBI Initiatives: The Reserve Bank of India has dismantled more than 9.4K circulars and consolidated rules into 244 master orders across 11 types of regulated entities to simplify the regulatory framework and improve compliance. Of these, 3.8 thousand circulars were incorporated or included in the main circulars, while the rest were repealed on the grounds that they had become obsolete. This is expected to increase clarity and reduce compliance burden for Regulated Entities, improving the ease of doing business. Under the Check Cut System, RBI has replaced batch processing with continuous clearing to reduce payment time and risks. New digital lending norms are improving borrower choice and competition by requiring loan service providers associated with multiple lenders to provide unbiased quotes. Following the Supreme Court’s intervention on digital arrests, the RBI issued several orders restricting dubious digital payments. Banks will need to prepare core banking protection plans by isolating critical systems from environmental applications by March 2028. But much more needs to be done to control the growing threat of cyber and financial fraud.
5. Other Milestone Reforms: Colonial era Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Indian Evidence Act were repealed. The new Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) recognizes digital evidence and makes E-FIRs mandatory. The new Labor Laws combine 29 old laws into four laws; The provisions aim to expand social security for 64 crore workers in the informal economy and increase women’s participation in the workforce. Through liberalization of quality control, mandatory processes for 76 products of MSMEs have been eliminated.
6. Artificial intelligence: The government has allocated Rs. 10,000+ Crore in 5 years under IndiaAI Mission. According to government estimates, AI could add around $1.7 trillion to the Indian economy by 2035, making it one of India’s strongest growth engines in the next decade. Mukesh Ambani called artificial intelligence “the most significant technological advancement in human history” and released a draft artificial intelligence manifesto for Reliance Industries. India will host the AI ​​Impact Summit in February 2026, highlighting its commitment to making AI accessible and beneficial to the public good. In addition to accelerating the growth of AI, the government will need to introduce legislation to regulate AI and enact the DPDP Act passed by Parliament in 2023.
7. Fastest Growing Economy: According to government estimates, India remains the world’s fastest growing major economy; According to these estimates, it has surpassed Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world, with $4.18 trillion, and is poised to displace Germany from third place in the next 2.5 to 3 years. However, India’s per capita GDP continues to lag significantly; The per capita GDP of the United States is 32 times higher than that of Germany, 21 times higher than that of Germany, and 5 times higher than that of China. A public finance problem arises where many state governments are forced to spend 80% of their revenues on subsidies, salaries, pensions and interest, leaving limited fiscal space.

As we enter a new year, this progress should revive hopes and the momentum for change should be sustained towards broader issues such as state capacity, grassroots governance and institutional building. In order to realize the quality and justice promised in the Preamble of the Constitution, the benefits of the reforms must reach ‘We the People’. Along with the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’, the right to life with dignity, including clean water and air, will be ensured by all organs of the state to ensure true justice to all Indian citizens.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above belong to the author and do not reflect the views of DNA)

Virag Gupta is a Supreme Court Advocate and Cyber ​​Law Expert. Their cases and interventions have brought significant changes in the IT, Cyber ​​and Telecom Sector such as protection of children in cyberspace, National Email Policy, appointment of Grievance Officers by Tech Giants, E-commerce, Digital Signatures and Online Gaming.