CII recommends 12 urgent ways to decriminalise business offences

CII has backed the introduction of Deferred Prosecution Agreements in the dispute settlement process - with certain exceptions

Fixed time frames for settling legal proceedings, financial penalties instead of criminal charges, and a more flexible dispute settlement system feature in the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII’s) list of urgent steps needed to decriminalise business offences.

Seeking intervention from different arms of the government to examine how the current criminal provisions can be treated as civil offences with penalties, the CII has laid out 12 ways to decriminalise business offences, thereby improving investor confidence and boosting ease of doing business, the industry body said on Sunday.

Covering 37 different legislations such as the Partnership Act of 1932, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,