-: 1st TUTORIAL :-

ESSAY ON

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Submitted to
Dr. AARTI MOHAN KALNAWAT
(Faculty of Comparative Crime, Justice and Human rights)

Submitted by

Ekta Chandrakar
LLM Student
Semester – I, Batch 2020-21
PRN No. 200110441013

Submitted on:
5TH November, 2020

Symbiosis Law School | Nagpur

Mouza, Wathoda Layout, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440008
 A NEED FOR A MORE HUMANE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SYSTEM IN INDIA

ABSTRACT

This essay is written in the hopes of opening the minds of people towards the idea of
transitioning to a more humane criminal justice system, specifically for the India. India clearly
stands out globally as a very strong, successful and developing nation. However, like with any
other nation, there are different aspects of India that needs improvement. Perhaps one aspect
that stands out in terms of needing improvement is the India’s criminal justice system. Whether it
is trying to reduce crime in India, or simply trying to help individuals by giving them a second
chance or is it finding ways to improve the criminal justice system which can impact everyone in
a positive manner, is a question of fact and which needs to be looked urgently into for making
changes and reforms in the criminal justice system of India.

INTRODUCTION

India is the world’s largest democracy and fair procedure is the basis or foundation of its
criminal justice system. But unfortunately in recent years its shine is diminishing due to
defective criminal justice system. Therefore to address the challenges of present day scenario and
to provide justice to the individuals, we are today in a critical moment of time, where there is
again a need to rethink and reformulate the justice system. There are gaps and lacunas in our well
developed laws which necessitate the effective incorporation of various techniques and strategies
into the policy framework which are not inhumane. Due to its ineffectiveness, people are losing
faith in the criminal justice system of India which is very dangerous. In order to understand the
criminal justice system let us understand and examine the objectives of it.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Criminal justice system refers to the agencies of government that is charged with the function of
enforcing laws, adjudicating crimes, and correcting the criminal conduct of individuals. It is an
instrument of social control which aims to protect the rights and personal liberty of the
individuals and the society. It further tries to prevent the occurrence of crime by punishing the
transgressors and the criminals along with the act of reforming them. It also sees that the trials
are conducted expeditiously and doing justice not only with the accused but also with the victim
and society. And along with providing justice, humanness must also be taken into account, so
that law and order in the society is maintained. But if we consider current and ongoing situations
in India, do we really feel that this justice system is actually doing justice?

AGENCIES AND COMPONENTS INVOLVED IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

India follows the Anglo Saxon adversarial pattern for the administration of criminal justice
system. It has broadly three main components which are as follows:

1. Law enforcement is those agencies that report, investigates and gathers information
related to crimes. Police being the front-line segment in this plays a very vital role and
therefore to understand criminal justice system it is first important to understand the
police.
2. Adjudication means judicial process which is further divided into:
a. Prosecutions are the lawyers who represent the state in a case.
b. Defence lawyers defend the accused against the government’s case.
c. Courts decide upon the cases based on law and pronounce judgments.
3. Corrections and prisons supervise the offenders when they are convicted and are put in
jail or in the community on probation or parole.

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE CURRENT CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

The criminal justice system in India is a several decades old system which is based on the system
established by the British during their period. The system has remained more or less same
without any major changes. There are fault lines existing in its implementation itself.

I. POLICE is one of the most important institutions of criminal justice system which
ensure justice and they are only ones who come forward at the time of emergency. But
during recent years it itself has failed as an institution. Several recent cases in the nation,
such as alleged gang-rape and death of a dalit teenager in UP’s Hathras district, custodial
death of a father and son duo in Tamilnadu, Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and murder
case, Vikas dubey encounter’s case, Hyderabad rape case and encounter, all these cases
in India have turned the spotlight on grave errors which is there in the system. Individuals
have started questioning their accountability as to who will police the police. The
increase in crime in recent years in the country points out to the fact that something is not
well with police administration itself.

The reasons for failure of police as a system could be various. First and foremost thing is
that we are still following the Indian Police Act, 1861, which has gone outdated. In this
Act, there is no such provision mentioned as to the accountability of the police. Most
policemen ignore the complaints or attend to them in a lackadaisical manner because they
are very sure to the fact that no action will be taken against them. They do not get into
action until and unless there is media uproar as we noticed it the Hathras rape case and
also in the tamilnadu custodial violence case, it was the hashtags that first gathered
attention and then it was made to the headlines. Secondly, though police falls in the state
list, but as India is largely a quasi-federal nation and so the Central Government is also
highly involved in the regulation of police forces. And due to this tussle between central
and state powers it’s the citizens of the country who highly suffer. Thirdly, there is strong
influence and control of politicians or executives over the police which affect their
decision making. And along with the influence, there is a nexus among criminals, police,
politicians and bureaucrats. Criminals enjoy the patronage of politicians and also get full
protection. A very good example of this is which the nation recently noticed in the Vikas
dubey case. It’s not hidden that he ruled the criminal world with a “Parallel Government”
for decades.

Headlines like “Gangster who killed 8 policemen, shot dead in encounter” “Hyderabad
rape accused killed in encounter” “#justiceforjayarajandfenix” and pictures of people
praising the encounter in one hand and in the other the demand of justice for father and
son duo are what seems attractive to government, not that who were the people associated
to the gangster, who were his supporters, how the encounter happened in the middle of
the road that too in a day light, how this encounter has become so easy to be conducted,
why did police tortured the father son duo to such an extent, how media is being allowed
 to take into its hand an investigation of Sushant Singh’s case, why media trial is not being
regulated by the police ? Seeing all these cases and question it’s difficult to answer as to
where our nation is heading to and what our criminal justice system is up to?

II. JUDICIARY plays a very vital and important role in implementation. Its first and
foremost duty is to protect and enforce human rights along with providing relief to the
victims. In the current changing situations, no doubt that the Indian courts are giving
attention not only to the accused and their rights but also to the victim and witnesses. But
still judicial system has failed because it has become overburdened and ensuring
constitutional right on a desirable period of time has become a distant dream.

William Edward Galdstone (the former PM of England) has cited the phrase “Justice
delayed is justice denied”. It means that if justice is delayed for a longer period of time, it
cannot be termed as real justice. We have clearly seen in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape
case that all 4 men were hanged after 7 years of brutal crime. In Ayodhya verdict too
which is one of the oldest case, the court took 70 years to reach on to a conclusion. The
reasons for this delay in justice could be various. But in this delay no one considers as to
what trauma the parents and family members of the victim deals everyday. Even in the
Hathras case, though the investigations have started and accused have been arrested, but
no one knows as to when justice would be served. People have lost faith in the Indian
judiciary and that is why when an encounter is executed it is highly appreciated by the
nation. Because everyone knows that if a case is filed in court it’s going to take several
years to render justice to an individual or to society.

There are certain other external, internal and quality factors which act as barriers in
dispensation of justice. External factors include certain monetary, cultural or
geographical barriers which prevents certain person access to courts and justice. Internal
factors include delayed investigation, complicated procedures and technicalities, which
affect everyone who is a part of the system. And there are quality factors which includes
uncertain and inconsistent application of law along with arbitrary sentencing. All these
factors in one way or the other affect the judgment in a particular case. Now who will
 question the judiciary? Can we consider that idols of justice are acting fairly in the
administration of justice? Can there be any holistic solution for all these factors in
making of a humane criminal justice system?

III. PRISON is another vital and important part of the criminal justice system but the prison
along with prisoners get minimal attention. The present condition of prison and prisoners
are deploring in India. Prisons have become overcrowded due to more no. of under-trial
prisoners than the convicted ones. They are forced to live in poor sanitation conditions
with no avenues to basic human rights and have become inhumane. Due to its
overcrowding, prison and prison authorities currently ensures as to only how a prisoner is
spending their time in prison and completing their period of punishment. But criminal
justice system should isn’t just be about the passing of time. It should be effectively
ensured as to how one is being reformed into a good and law abiding citizen so that when
he comes out of the prison he is absolutely fit for the survival in the society. This has
been totally ignored in our justice system and because of which when they come out of
prison and find it difficult to survive, they again commit crime for fulfilling their basic
necessities.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS TO STRENGTHEN CRIMINAL

JUSTICE SYSTEN IN INDIA

In the light of above discussions the following suggestions can be inferred for improvements
which can be made to the criminal justice system in India. With police shootings, prison
crowding and other critical criminal justice issues in India in the news more than usual over the
last year, we talk about criminal justice “reform;” but what shape should this reform take? There
is always an outcry for new laws, whenever the criminal justice process fails. We have enough
laws. We only lack the honest implementation of existing laws along with some or little changes.

As before adopting our Indian constitution we looked into to the various other constitutions of
the country and then we adopted the best practices which were there in those constitutions to our
constitution. Likewise, we should adopt the best practices which are present in the criminal
justice system of other countries. We can find the gaps present in our system by comparing it to
other systems. With this way we can improve our system in an effective manner.

In countries like Northern Ireland and New Zealand, polices are made accountable for their
abuse of power. And hence this should be incorporated in our system as well for improving
police legitimacy and public confidence which will eventually help our criminal justice system to
prosper and flourish. Mere transfers and suspensions are no solutions of their willful neglect
because they are the ones who are approached first when crime takes place and who visit to the
crime spot first. And hence no lethargic behavior should be accepted from their side. Awareness
should be created by posters that they will be made accountable if FIR is not registered by them
or if they try to violate the law. They must also stay away and free from agenda-driven politics.
Along with proper training they should be made aware of new laws and techniques. During
trainings which should be conducted every month, webinars can be conducted relating to human
rights which will make them think before doing any kind of violence against an individual. For
imparting such disciplines and to make them sensitize about their roles, help from certain NGOs
operating at grassroots level can also be taken. The police personnel staff in a particular police
station should also be increased so that longer working hours is reduced for a particular police
and the next day with fresh mind he can investigate into a particular case. Also the workload
should be distributed as to who will do the file works, who will investigate the case, who will
visit the court with the culprit etc. If this gets organized then they will be able to work effectively
and with full energy. Along with this there are a lot of infrastructural issues that the police as a
system face that needs to be looked into. Police stations lack proper facilities and they are made
to work in substandard condition. If these things are looked into, they will be less frustrated and
will then understand the role which they play and will behave with decency with the individuals
in the society making the criminal justice system more humane in nature.

“Justice hurried is justice buried” is equally true as to “Justice delayed is justice denied”. So the
judges should not try to resort into hurry-up of cases by whatever means because then it will lead
to violation of natural justice. But certain other methods can be resorted. During this pandemic as
all the courts of have gone online, this practice can be continued even after the pandemic too.
Certain benches can be constituted for conducting only online hearings. This can eventually help
in solving pending cases before the court and will lessen the burden. Along with more judges in
the country, the courts should have a separate criminal division who are specialized in criminal
law to deal with cases of crime. Judges too need to sensitize their role by departing from old
fashioned strict interpretation of the laws and using their discretion when found necessary in the
interest of the justice. Also while granting and refusing bail there should not be used any hard
and fast rules and each case should be decided on its own merits. And hence for the humane
criminal justice system activeness of the judges is very much required.

Prison is another vital part of criminal justice system as the offender tends to undergo his
punishment there. We have noticed that the condition of prisoners remains deplorable in India.
There’s widespread violation of human rights of prisoners. According to me even if he is a
prisoner, he still remains to be a human being and he should be atleast be given to live his life in
a fruitful way inside the prison. All the basic necessities of life should be made available to them.
The time period which a prisoner spends in the prison should be molded in such a way that when
he comes out he is eligible to be fit and accepted back in the society. Although now a prisoner is
allowed to complete their studies and do other activities inside the prison, but that should not
only be done for the name sake. It should be made beneficial for the prisoner and also for the
society. They should be made employable after they are released because if again they’ll find
difficulty in their survival, they’ll tend to commit crime. The actual aim of prison of
transforming an individual will then again fail. And this ultimately leads to failure of criminal
justice system. Couple of places have implemented Norwegian prison style and have had positive
results. This can also be adopted in India for an effective criminal justice system.

CONCLUSION

Criminal Justice Administration in a society is a relay race and each agency participating in it
just passes the blame to the other runner. Since the responsibility is collective, it’s difficult to
give the credit or blame about the quality to anyone agency .We clearly see that India doesn't
have a very humane system, which is likely and statistically proven to be the root cause of its
inefficiency. The protectors of law themselves are turning into predators. But hopefully,
everyone can come together and make change in the Indian criminal justice system, for the
greater good of humanity. Along with changing and solving the problems which is there in
criminal justice system, a more can be done to help and treat the victims of crimes as well. Also
apart from improving criminal justice system, those who work in law enforcement or work in the
criminal justice system and have made many important commitments and sacrifices, they should
really be thanked for their work towards bettering society as well as the individuals.