REVAMPING CRIMINAL JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM
The Union Minister for Law, Justice
and Company Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley has called for revamping
criminal justice delivery system in the country. Addressing a
three-day long Seminar on "Fundamental Principles of Criminal
Justice – A Fresh Look" under the aegis of the Justice V.S.
Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System and the
Bar Association of India, here last evening, Shri Jaitley suggested
some of the measures to make criminal justice delivery system
fair, time bound and result-oriented. The measures he enumerated
included integrity and fairness of police system, accountability
of police system and others to ensure fairness of the criminal
justice system, right of accused to fair trial, larger interest
of civil society, expeditious and time bound trial and proceedings,
increasing the number of judges, timely filling of vacancies of
judges, checking witnesses turning hostile and a serious look
at our perjury law to improve criminal justice delivery system.
The Law Minister said that at stake was rule of law and constitutional
guarantee. The Seminar was inaugurated by the former President,
Shri R. Venkataraman.
Shri Venkataraman said that the
three adjuncts of criminal justice system were: prosecution, trial
and sentence or punishment. The bane of criminal justice system
were tardy investigation, absence of witnesses, delay, cumbersome
procedures, lengthy judgements, paucity of criminal courts and
large number of vacancies of Judges. He suggested addressing all
these problems comprehensively to help the people repose faith
in the efficacy of our criminal justice system.
Earlier, the President of the
Bar Association of India, Shri Fali S. Nariman, in his keynote
address said that the present criminal justice system in India
was in terrible shape. He suggested dispensing of recording of
evidence and confessional statements as they were farce and untenable.
He further said that the country needed robust and upright Judges
who could make difference and for this, Judges needed to be educated.
Shri Lalit Bhasin delivered welcome address.
The three-day Seminar on "Fundamental
Principles of Criminal Justice is the fourth in the series following,
Bangalore, Mumbai and Jaipur for interaction with Bench, Bar and
Retired Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts and other
professionals to help justice Malimath Committee firm up its suggestions
and recommend to the Government measures for streamlining criminal
justice delivery system in the country.
