Statutory and structural measures to reduce criminal litigation

Abstract

The Indian criminal justice system of retributive justice is a colonial legacy. Seven decades of its implementation in independent India has exposed some of its inherent limitations which require urgent rectification. Pendency of more than 33 million cases in various courts of India, 270,000 under trial prisoners, the annual cost of litigation exceeding 1 lakh crore and an average total time of more than 15 years for the finalisation of the judicial process from subordinate court to the Supreme Court of India is a brief quantification of the enormity of the problem.An important deficiency in the system is that even after the completion of legal process the raison d’etre of the crime remains very much there and many a times gives rise to recurrence of crime on the same issue.Police which is the initial rung of the criminal justice system and the first responder to the disputes, is deprived of any mandate to initiate the process of conciliation thereby eliminating the cause of conflict and ensuring lasting peace and harmony. The Code of Criminal Procedure makes it obligatory for the police to register a FIR if a cognizable offence is reported without checking its veracity, credibility or reasonableness, but the penal provisions for the wilful abuse of this carte blanche are not commensurate to the sanctity attached to the process of registration of the FIR. This policy paper endeavour to device such statutory and structural measures which may be effective in the reduction of pending litigations in various courts and to evolve a legal framework in which role of law enforcement agency in alternate disputes resolution and conflicts management is recognised and it is empowered to initiate and facilitate the arbitration procedures and also seek to impose a moratorium on the rampant practice of intentional misuse of section 154 CrPC. The policy paper apart from other measures proposes the amendment of the Code Of Criminal Procedure to incorporate section 156-A in the CrPC mandating the police to facilitate the process of arbitration. An amendment in the Indian Penal code is proposed to make sections 182 and 211 of IPC cognizable, non-bailable and carry punishment of not less then 7 years, to make the penalty for contravention equivalent to the virtue attributed to the franchise. The system which has become a synonym for endless wait today is under enormous pressure to retain its legitimacy and need curative measures to prevent it from becoming a statue honouring the breach rather than the observance