रेफोर्म्स इन क्रिमिनल जस्टिस सिस्टम

TIME TO OPEN EYES

Criminal Justice System in India is a British legacy and had been established by the British Govt. The Indian Penal Code, 1860, Indian Evidence Act, 1871 and Criminal procedure Code of 1898 laid down the foundation stone of Criminal Justice System in India. The police force was created to execute and implement the verdict and bring the culprits to book. Police Act was enacted in 1849 last amended in 1861 to make the police force institutionalised. These above mentioned laws marked the beginning of evolution of Criminal Justice System in Modern India.
India became independent and we continued the British legacy. The voice of concerns against police apathy and atrocities gaining strength and it became gradually lauder. With the passage of time the system of governance and priorities of government underwent changes. The welfare state concept, human rights ethos as declared in Universal Declaration of Human rights by the UN on 10th December, 1948 etc necessitated drastic changes in the prevailing and exiting monolith structure of Criminal Justice System in our country.
The Criminal Justice System includes two aspect of Justice-
1. Police. 2. Judiciary
POLICE- Police being the most important and most visible part of Criminal Justice System, it was required to be revamped. The vestiges of British legacies were sought to be done away with by making it more people’s friendly, more responsive and more responsible. To achieve this desired goal and reform the structure one National Police Commission was constituted in 1977 by Ministry of Home affairs which gave recommendation on Police reforms.
NATIONAL POLICE COMMISSION-(1977-81) This commission was set up on 15 November, 1977 headed by Dharam Vira ICS, The commission gave as many as 8(eight) recommendation, last was submitted in 1981. Unfortunately none of the recommendations were implemented by any state. Important recommendation of this commission are-
· Police complaint Board as state level
· Posting of DGP from panel prepared by a committee comprising of UPSC chairman, CS and officers of MOH
· State security commission
· Gram Nyayalaya ( village courts)
· DGP would chose SPs and SPs would choose SHOs.
· APP& Additional PP on regular basis.
· Cadre of investigating officers should be increased.
· Directorate of Prosecution at state level and Deputy Director at regional level.
· Police stations as whole and compact unit (catering to all needs like traffic, Law and Order, Crime etc.
· Urban areas should have exclusive police stations.
· 150 sq KM should have one PS in rural areas
Unfortunately none except Sikkim implemented all such recommendation.
Prakash Singh retired IPS filed a petition in the Apex court and Supreme Court in its judgement (Writ Petition 310/1996) passed order on 11 January 2007. It has now become the guiding principle of police reforms in India.
The main points of judgement is as follows-
1. Establishment of a National Security Commission- this was for the Union Govt.
2. Establishment of a State Security Commission- this direction was for the State govt.
3. Selection of DGP from a panel and its fixation of tenure.
4. Minimum tenure of IGP to other field level officers.
5. Separation of Law and Order from investigation.
6. Police establishment board.
7. Constitution of Complaint Authority.
In pursuance of the above direction Government of Bihar enacted Bihar Police Act, 2007 in the year 2007 and repealed the relevant part of provisions of Police Act, 1861. State of Bihar took lead in this direction and incorporated some of the directions given by the Supreme Court. In section 59 of the act, the police department at district level has been made answerable to district complaint authority. Keeping in view of the spirit of judgment delivered by the apex court in Prakash Singh v/s Union of India, a civil officer, the district magistrate has been made chairman of this complaint authority.
The Act has yet not been fully enforced in the sense that till date Rules to this effect has not been framed. Section 94 of the Act empowers the Govt to frame Rules; non framing thereto has hampered the enforcement of this Act.

REFORMS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (JUDICIAL SIDE)
The first serious attempt was made in 2000 when Ministry of Home affairs constituted a committee on 24 November, 2000 under the chairmanship of Justice V.S. Mallimath, retired Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court and Kerala High Courts. Eminent legal luminaries like Chairman CAT, Member of NHRC were made members of this committee which is popularly known as MALLIMATH COMMITTEE.
TERMS OF REFERENCES-
· Suggest fundamental principle of Criminal Jurisprudence.
· Need to rewrite Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Penal Code, IEA etc
· Simplifying procedure for dispensation of speedy justice and simplifying complications in Criminal jurisprudence.
· Suggest ways and means developing synergy among Police, Judiciary, and Prosecution.
· Concept of federal crime in List I of seventh schedule so that heinous crimes can be removed from state list and bought to Union list I( article 246 of Indian Constitution)
Recommendations of Malimath committee-

1- Striking a balance between adversarial and inquisitorial system of investigation. The latter being supervised by a judicial magistrate.
2- Restriction to right to silence. This fundamental right is enshrined in Article 22 (3) of constitution which confers the accused the right to keep mum in eliciting information to a prosecution during examination.
3- Justice to victims. Present day criminal jurisprudence is based on the concept of awarding punishment to a accused to other than providing relief and succour to the victims. Committee recommended for awarding adequate compensation to the victims apart from awarding punishments only.
4- Separation of investigation and law and order wing of the police on line of NPC.
5- Special legislations to be enacted for organized crime, economic offences, Terrorism and low intensity war.
6- Concept of Federal Crime to be inserted Criminal jurisprudence and should be brought in list I of schedule VII in Article 246 on Indian Constitution on lines of America.
FADE OF MALIMATH COMMITTE’S RECOMENDATION –
Like many other recommendations of numerous committee and commission, 158 recommendations of this committee also mat the same fade। Majority of the recommendations have been thrown into the dust bins. Bihar is one such state which has partially acted on lines of these recommendations and has in acted Bihar Police Act 2007 repealing some of the out dated, vestigial and obsolete provisions of Police Act 1861.

MAJOR CHALLANGES FACING INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM –
1। Huge pendency of cases (3, 63, 36,000) in different courts.

2। Inordinate delay in disposal of cases.

3। Ill –prioritisation of cases. The listing of cases are still done, despite computerisation , in most unscientific and non transparent manner

4। The quality and quantity of judgement are affected not by quality of judgement rather than personalities of the lawyers. Jungle of rulings has swallowed the bare Acts Codes.

5। Appointment procedures of High Court and Supreme Court Judges are not institutionalised (Advocate on record versus Union of India case in 1994 Supreme Court of India)

6. The impeachment procedure of High Court and Supreme Court Judges is arduous and complicated. This has led to development of an idea that judges can never be sacked. (The case of Justice Soumitra Sen, the judge of Calcutta High Court is still to be taken up in the Parliament.