CRPC Project
CRPC Project
CRPC Project
PATNA
Project on:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Method of Research
The researcher has adopted a purely doctrinal method of research. The researcher has made
extensive use of the library at the Hidayatullah National Law University and also the internet
sources.
Aims and Objectives:
The aim of the project is to present a detailed study of the liability for acts done with the
consent of the victim.
Scope and Limitations:
The project deals with liability of acts done with the consent of the victim in the Indian penal
code.
Sources of Data:
The following secondary sources of data have been used in the project1
Books
Websites
Method of Writing:
The method of writing followed in the course of this research paper is primarily analytical.
Mode of Citation:
The researcher has followed a uniform mode of citation throughout the course of this research
paper
2 | Page
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
V. Conclusion
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION
3 | Page
thought to comprise a
is one that many within the country have recognized as reaching a breaking point;
consider that diverse observers such as high-ranking government officials, civil society
activists, lawyers, and judges have in unison called for massive reforms in the countrys
penal process.4
This crisis is occurring against a paradoxical Indian landscape.5 On the one hand,
1
In India the term jail is used more frequently than, but interchangeably with, the term prison. Parts III and IV of this
article discuss the statistics involving those who are in Indian jails, but one of the alarming facts is how Indian jails often do
not segregate their inmates, thus resulting in a situation where people awaiting trial are sharing cells with hardened convicts.
See discussion infra Parts III, IV. In contrast, in the United States, there is a distinct difference between jails and prisons, with the
former often having less formalized protocol and greater variation in enforcement standards than the latter. The result is that
jails can at times place inmates in greater danger than prisons. (This is even given that jails typically hold people for
misdemeanors or as they await final outcomes of trials, while prisons generally incarcerate people convicted of felonies.)
For a recent series on the American jail and prison system, see Crime and Punishment in America: Rough Justice, ECONOMIST, July
22, 2010, available at http://www.economist.com/node/16640389; see also DEPT OF JUSTICE, REPORT ON RAPE IN JAILS IN
THE U.S (Dec. 29, 2008), http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/reviewpanel/pdfs/prea_finalreport_081229.pd f [hereinafter DOJ
Dec. 2008 Report]; DEPT OF JUSTICE, REPORT ON RAPE IN STATE AND FEDERAL PRISONS IN THE U.S., (Sept. 24, 2008),
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/reviewpanel/pdfs/prea_finalreport_080924.pd f [here- inafter DOJ Sept. 2008 Report]. We thank
Professor Wayne Logan (Florida State University) for highlighting this important point to us.
This term will be used, referenced, and cited extensively in Parts IIIV.
. The Indian Minister for Law and Justice, M. Veerappa Moily, himself has noted this statistic. See 92,000 Undertrial Prisoners
Released Across India, IGOVERNMENT, May 27, 2010, http:// igovernment.in/site/92000-undertrial-prisoners-released-across-india-37660.
We will be discuss- ing the Law Ministers efforts in Parts III and IV.
We highlight in detail the work and studies of these various observers in Parts IIIV. But see KIRAN BEDI, ITS ALWAYS POSSIBLE: ONE
WOMANS TRANSFORMATION OF TIHAR PRISON (2006) (arguing that the situation in one of Indias most notorious penitentiaries has
improved).
55For a discussion
of this particular term and occurrence of this paradox, see The Paradox of Indias New Prosperity, REDIFF BUSINESS,
Jan. 14, 2010, http://business.rediff.com/column/2010/ jan/14/guest-the-paradox-of-indias-new-prosperity.htm.
4 | Page
poor
In terms of data on corruption in India, Transparency International (TI) has been at the forefront of tracking and critiquing
this problem. For information from TI-India (TII), see Transparency International India, http://www.transparencyindia.org/
(last visited Mar. 6, 2011); see also Jayanth K. Krishnan, Scholarly Discourse, Public Perceptions, and the Cementing of Norms: The Case of the
Indian Supreme Court and a Plea for Research, 29 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS 255 (2007) [hereinafter Krishnan, Scholarly Discourse]; C. Raj
Kumar, Corruption as a Human Rights: Promoting Transparency in Good Governance and the Fundamental Right to Corruption-Free Services in
India, 17 COLUM. J. ASIAN L.31 (2003). For a sample of other works that have focused on these various subjects, see generally PAUL
BRASS, THE POLITICS OF INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE (1994); ATUL DOHLI, DEMOCRACY AND DISCONTENT: INDIAS GROWING CRISIS
OF GOVERNABILITY (1990); ATUL KOHLI, THE STATE AND POVERTY IN INDIA: THE POLITICS OF REFORM (1987); PRATAP BHANU
MEHTA, THE BURDEN OF DEMOCRACY (2003); LLOYD RUDOLPH & SUSANNE RUDOLPH, IN PURSUIT OF LAKSHMI: THE POLITICAL
ECONOMY OF THE INDIAN STATE (1987); Pratap Bhanu Mehta, A Decade of Hope, OUTLOOK INDIA, Jan. 11, 2010,
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263732.
See e.g., Marc Galanter & Jayanth K. Krishnan, Debased Informalism: Lok Adalats and Legal Rights in India, in BEYOND COMMON
KNOWLEDGE: EMPIRICAL APPROACHES TO THE RULE OF LAW 96 (2003) [hereinafter Galanter & Krishnan, Debased Informalism]; ROBERT
MOOG, WHOSE INTERESTS ARE SUPREME? THE ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS OF THE CIVIL COURTS IN TWO DISTRICTS OF UTTAR PRADESH
(1997); Jayanth K. Krishnan, Social Policy Advocacy and the Role of the Courts in India, 21 AM. ASIAN REV. 91 (2003).
5 | Page
in a consoli- dated
democracyare so
prisoners being forced to serve extended periods of confinement was part of the
Indian Supreme Courts discourse as early as 1952albeit in a slightly unexpected
manner. In Lachmandas Kewalram Ahuja, the Court held that defen- dants convicted
under the pre-1950 criminal justice regime needed to have their rights conform to
the
new
then
ordered that
the
defendants be
retained in custody as undertrial-prisoners,12 while the state prepared its new case.
Indeed, in the first two decades after independence, concern for the length of time
undertrial-detainees spent in prison did not seem to be a focus for the Court. On
repeated occasions, the Court maintained a low threshold that the prosecution had to
meet in order to justify the continued detention of undertrial-prisoners.13 Moreover,
10
11
12
Id.
6 | Page
13
See e.g., Madhu Limaye v. Magistrate, (1971) 2 S.C.R. 711 (holding that undertrials may be detained in order to ensure that they
appear in court for their eventual trial and where there may be a threat to community peace if they are released); Ranbir, Singh
Sehgal v. Punjab, (1962) S.C.R. Supl. (1) 295 (noting that an undertrial prisoner is not necessarily exempt from being placed in
solitary confinement, although the reasons for being held in solitary must not be arbitrary and must have a basis in law); Leo
Roy Frey v. Superintendent, (1958) S.C.R. 822 (holding that a valid rebuttal to a defendants claim of habeus corpus is for the
prosecution simply to provide a production of the order or warrant for the apprehension and detention of an undertrial); Kanta
Prashad v. Delhi Admin., (1958) S.C.R. 1218.
14
See e.g., GRANVILLE AUSTIN, WORKING A DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUTION: THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE (1999); UPENDRA BAXI, THE INDIAN
SUPREME COURT AND POLITICS (Eastern Book Co.) (1980); RAJEEV DHAVAN, THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA: A SOCIO-LEGAL CRITIQUE OF
ITS JURISTIC TECHNIQUES (1977); S.P. SATHE, JUDICIAL ACTIVISM IN INDIA: TRANSGRESSING BORDERS AND ENFORCING LIMITS (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press) (2002); Krishnan, Scholarly Discourse, supra note 18.
15
See SATHE, supra note 56, at 106; Krishnan, Scholarly Discourse, supra note 18; see also Carl Baar, Social Action Litigation in India:
The Operations and Limitations on the Worlds Most Active Judiciary, 19 POLY STUD. J. 140 50 (1990); Marc Galanter & Jayanth K.
Krishnan, Bread for the Poor: Access to Justice and Rights of the Needy in India, 55 HASTINGS L.J. 789, 795 (2005) [hereinafter Galanter
& Krishnan, Bread for the Poor]; Jayanth K. Krishnan, Lawyering for a Cause and Experiences from Abroad, 94 CAL. L. REV. 575 (2006)
[hereinafter Krishnan, Lawyering for a Cause].
16
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In the years that followed, subsequent judgments reiterated the position set forth
in Hussainara Khatoon. In 1980, for example, the Court prohibited the continued
handcuffing of incarcerated under- trials unless there was a clear and present danger of
17
Id. Professor Upendra Baxi has written one of the most detailed and analytical account of this case. As Baxi notes, in reality
there were several iterations of the decision, involving six different interim orders. (At the time of his writing, the final orders
in the writ petition . . . [were] yet to emerge). For a comprehensive review of these various interim rulings, see Upendra Baxi, The
Supreme Court Under Trial: Undertrials and the Supreme Court, 1 S.C.C. (JOUR.) 35, 3551 (1980). It is important to note that while Justice
Bhagwati was a crusader for the undertrials in the Post-Emergency Era, he also was part of the majority in the infamous case (during the
Emergency Rule) that allowed the government to wield unfettered powers, including the power to abrogate the constitutions right to
life and habeas corpus provisions. See A.D.M. Jabalpur v. Shukla, A.I.R.1976 S.C. 1207. We are grateful to Mr. Viplav Sharma for his
insights on this important case.
18
19
See Khatoon v. Home Ministry, (1979) 3 S.C.R. 169 (referencing the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the
United States Bail Reform Act of 1966 as well as [t]he experience of enlightened Bail Projects in the United States such as
Manhattan Bail Project and D. C. Bail Project shows that even without monetary bail it has been possible to secure the presence
of the accused at the trial in quite a large number of cases).
20
21
Id. Again, for a complete treatment of this crucial ruling, see SATHE, supra note 17.
8 | Page
the
Court
sought
to remedy
period, the Court dealt with the ghastly blinding of undertrial-prisoners in a northern
Indian jail,26 as well as whether undertrials could have the time already spent waiting
in prison count towards a sentence once rendered.27 With respect to the latter, in 1985 the
Court answered affirmatively, holding that even defendants sen- tenced to life imprisonment
22
23
Pehadiya v. Bihar, A.I.R. 1981 S.C. 939 (noting that the undertrial problem was a crying shame upon our adjudicatory system . . .
. Also note that the decision was made in December of 1980 but reported in many casebooks in 1981thus the Supreme Court
Reports citation.). For a moving, detailed account of a leading advocate who worked on behalf of the boys in this case, see VASUDHA
DHAGAMWAR, ROLE AND IMAGE OF LAW IN INDIA: THE TRIBAL EXPERIENCE 241258 (2006). Also see, Bir v. Bihar, A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 1470
(where the Court (with Justice Bhagwati again part of the panel) explicitly ruled that state high courts (in this case Bihars) should
ensure that there are no undertrial prisoners who are detained in jail for more than 18 months without their trial having been
commenced, either before the magistrate or the court of sessions, and if there are such undertrial prisoners, the High Court will take
steps for the purpose of expediting the trial of such undertrial prisoners).
24
See DHAGAMWAR, supra note 65, at 248. Interestingly, Dhagamawar notes in this chapter of her book that she was inspired to
champion the boys case after seeing the tremendous efforts taken by Justice Bhagwati in Hussainara Khatoon, as well as in
another case, Batra v. Delhi Administration, (1979) 1 S.C.R. 392 (1978), where the Court there held that a prisoner who had been
savagely beaten required humane treatment and immediate due process in the criminal justice system.
25
See, e.g., Munna v. Upper Pradesh, (1982) 3 S.C.R. 47 (accepting a writ petition and ordering further investigation of the
extensive allegations of sexual abuse of juvenile undertrials); see also Supreme Court Legal Aid Comm. v. India, (1989) 2 S.C.R. 60
(ordering various states to collect data on the numbers of undertrial children in prison); Suri v. Delhi Admin., (1988)2 S.C.R.
234 (dealing with the inhumane conditions to which juveniles in Delhis Tihar Jail were exposed).
26
27
The Court, for instance, initially said no. See Kartar Singh v. Haryana, (1983) 1 S.C.R. 445, where the Court argued that because
the defendants sentence was for life, counting the undertrial waiting period towards such a sentence would make no sense. But
see Sethi v. Bihar,
9 | Page
enhancing the rights of the undertrials. In a landmark 1994 case, the Court ruled that
for those undertrial-defendants accused of narcotics violations who had spent half [the
time] of the maximum punishment provided for the offence,29 any further
deprivation of personal liberty would be violative of the fundamental right visualized by
Article 21.30
Two years later, in two cases, the Court reiterated time limits for incarceration of
undertrials.31 The Court, in Shri Rama Murthy v. State of Karnataka, noted that given that
the state had 193,240 people incarcer- ated of which 137,838 were undertrials
justice would best be served by simply releasing the undertrials.32
In the 2000s, the jurisprudence of the Indian Supreme Court has continued
to emphasize the need to protect undertrial-prisoners rights.33 While there has been
28
Bhagirath v. Delhi Admin., (1985) 3 S.C.R. 743. Practically, this issue would arise in those situations where a defendant was
sentenced to life but had a possibility of parole.
29
Supreme Court Legal Aid Comm. v. India, (1994) Supp. 4 S.C.R. 386.
30
Id. For two even more current cases re-stating this principle, see Maharashtra v. Ali, (2001)3 S.C.R. 600; Saxena v. India, (2008) 63
A.C.C. 115.
31
See Upadhyay v. Andhra Pradesh, (1996) 3 S.C.C. 422; Common Cause v. India, (1996) Supp. 2 S.C.R. 196. But c.f. Rao v.
Karnataka, (2002) 3 S.C.R. 68 (overruling the Common Cause decision, noting that judges have to determine what a speedy trial is in
terms of the facts and circumstances of the case before them).
32
Shri Rama Murthy v. Karnataka, A.I.R. 1997 S.C. 1739. Note, while this decision was handed down in 1997, the data that the
Court was working off of was from statistics taken in 1993.
33
See, e.g., Parekh v. Cent. Bureau of Investigations, (2009) 15 S.C.R. 1105 (reiterating the principle that time served as an
undertrial should count towards any formal sentence received); Upadhyay v. Andhra Pradesh, A.I.R. 2006 S.C. 1946 (decrying the
horrid situation of children who are dependent on their motherswho are undertrial-prisoners having to stay in prison with their
parent simply as a means of surviving); Sanjay Alias Bablu Alias Keja v. Gujarat, (2002)10 S.C.C. 403 (granting of release, on bail, to
undertrial prisoner who had been languishing since1998 awaiting trial); Maharashtra v. Mubarak Ali, (2001) 3 S.C.R. 600 (holding that
the undertrial prisoner, under section 428, can have his time served counted towards two separate criminal sentences imposed
upon him). For further cases during the 2000s that deal with the Courts jurisprudence on the undertrials
10 | P a g e
have been few in the post-Emergency era. Yet, with all of these
trans- lated
into
next
chapter.
The Empirics
According to the latest data from the Indian government, there are roughly 430,000
people incarcerated in the country, with a startling 70% (300,000) who are undertrialprisoners.35 These figures are in theaggregate, so in order to contextualize this information
consider the most recent disaggregated data (from the Ministry of Home Affairs) from the
end of 2007. This information reveals that the total number of undertrial-prisoners in the
twenty-eight states and seven union territo- ries (UTs) then was 250,727. 36 Given the
governments most recent 2010 data, that number has grown by nearly an astonishing
50,000 people in just over two years. This fact alone
intimates that
the Supreme
Courts various judgments have simply not been executed. Further, over one-third of the
34
See, e.g., Sarkar v. Ranjan, A.I.R. 2005 S.C. 972. Here the Court had shown hostility towards an undertrial prisoner who
has disobeyed internal prison rules, noting that [t]he fundamental right of an undertrial prisoner under Article 21 of the
Constitution is not absolute.Id. at 21
35
36
The data come from the Indian governments Ministry of Home Affairs and are compiled by IndiaStat.com, a sophisticated web
service. State-wise Demographic Particulars of Untertrial Prisoners in Jails in India, INDIASTAT.COM,
http://www.indiastat.com/crimeandlaw/6/whatsnew.aspx [here- inafter State-wise Demographic Particulars]. Unfortunately, the Ministrys
most recent disaggregated on-line data is from the end of 2007. The Indian government also has a body known as the National
Crime Records Bureau. However, the most recent on-line disaggregated data available there is from 2006; thus we rely on the former
source here for this study.
11 | P a g e
other backward classes (OBCs) made-up the undertrial-population, with nearly two-thirds
of the total number of undertrials coming from one of these three communities. 38 These
three groups, whose classifications are officially denoted and recognized in India,
have long been formally identified by the govern- ment as deserving constitutional and
statutory protection as well as affirmative public benefits, due to the historic, socioeconomic, political, and religious discrimination they have faced.39
Moreover, from a state-by-state perspective (excluding the union territories), in all
but five states (Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir,
Karnataka, and
West
Bengal) at least 50% of the 2007 undertrial totals, respectively, are from scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes, or OBCs. Of course, that there may be variation among and
within these groups, politically and socio-economically, in their respec- tive states is obvious.
But, according to a highly respected observer who closely tracks this data and is intimately
familiar with the undertrial problem in India, there is a palpable sense among lawyers,
rights activists, and government officials that lower castes are unfairly tar- geted by the
criminal justice system.40
There are other Home Ministry data (again from end-2007) worth discussing, as
37
38
In particular, the data show that 63% of the total number of prisoners is from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBCs.
The breakdown in number is: for Scheduled Castes, 54,324/241,413; Scheduled Tribes, 29,941/241,413; OBCs: 68,115/241,413.
(Note also that the total number of undertrials, 241,413, is lower than the total number of undertrials from footnote 39, which was
250,727. Presumably this difference is because there are unreported statistics in the former (namely from Delhi, where the difference
between 250,727 and 241,413 is 9,314, which is the exact number of undertrials listed for Delhi.) For information on the data,
see text accompanying supra note 78. See also State-wise Demographic Particulars of Undertrial Prisoners in Jails of India(Caste Data)
(2007), INDIASTAT.COM, (On file with author.)
39
For a classic treatment on the issue of law and caste in India, see MARC GALANTER, COMPETING EQUALITIES: LAW AND
BACKWARD CLASSES IN INDIA (1984). Of course, this subject has been discussed extensively in the literature. For a recent, up-to-date
bibliography on the subject of caste, see TIMOTHY LUBIN, DONALD R. DAVIS & JAYANTH K. KRISHNAN, HINDUISM AND LAW (2010).
40
Interview with Civil Society Official (anonymity requested) (May 17, 2010) (on file with author).
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of the
end- 2007,
103,624 had been waiting for a trial for three months or fewer, and another 52,476
had been waiting up to six months. At the other end of the spectrum, there were
1,891 inmates who had spent more than five years in detention, which is .008% of
the total undertrial- population.45
At first glance, these figures might be ones that defenders would use to rebut the
41
For a discussion of this issue, see generally HARI OM MARATHA, LAW OF SPEEDY TRIAL: JUSTICEDELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED (2008)
42
See State-wise Number of Undertrial Prisoners by Type of IPC Offences in India, Part I, II, and III (2007), INDIASTAT.COM (on file with
author).
43
See State-wise Number of Undertrial Prisoners by Type of Offences under Special and Local Laws (SLL) in India, Part I, Part II, Part III
(2007), INDIASTAT.COM (on file with author).
44
Id. For an insightful, although critical review of an essay on this subject, where the reviewer highlights how statistics on
undertrials must include special laws, which we do, see Bikram Jeet Batra, A Weak Look at Judicial Reforms, INDIA TOGETHER (2007),
http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/may/rvw-judreform.htm (last visited Mar. 28, 2011) (critiquing Debashis Chakraborty, Arnab
Kumar Hazra, & Pavel Chakraborty, Crime Deterrence and the Need for Reforms: An Analysis of Indian States, in JUDICIAL REFORMS IN INDIA:
ISSUES AND ASPECTS (Arnab Kumar Hazra & Bibek Debroy eds., 2007).
45
See State-wise Number of Undertrial Prisoners by Period of Detention in India, Part I and Part II (2007), INDIASTAT.COM (on file with
author).
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Otherwise put, this time frame matters little to the person who is being held for a
crime that carries a maximum sentence of thirty days but remains incarcerated for
five months. Similarly, for the 1,891 prisoners awaiting trial for more than five years, the
question must be asked: who are these people? As stated above, there are over 52,000
people currently facing murder charges. Might all 1,891 of these people be murderdefendants? (Perhapsand if they are indeed guilty that may serve as some odd form
of Machiavellian rationalization justifying their current status. But a priori how do we
know beyond a reasonable doubt that they are guilty?) And what about the other
50,000 murder-charged defendants; where are they in the process? What about the
people who are charged with much
bail
hearing?
See Litigation Statistics Debate Continue: All India Seminar on Judicial Reforms Looks at Real Statistics and Real Numbers, BAR &
BENCH, Aug. 2, 2010, http://barandbench.com/brief/2/882/ litigation-statistics-debate-continue-all-india-seminar-on-judicialreforms-looks-at-real-statistics- and-real-numbers654425 (with the Chief Justice further noting: For years I have been listening to
speaker after speaker . . . slamming the judiciary for mounting arrears. They must know [in India, for statistics purposes] filing of a case
today becomes a pending case tomorrow. But, is that an arrear? Statistics reveal that 60% of the cases pending in trial courts were less
than one year old. So, if we take a realistic look at the arrears and exclude those pending for just one year, then the arrears are only
one crore [i.e. 10,000,000] cases, rather than the 30,000,000 that is frequently cited).
47
Given the number of such cases the Supreme Court alone has heard in the past, the answer seems to be, disturbingly, yes. For
a review of these cases, see supra Part II.A.
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48
See FAQs About Arrest/Bail, MAHARASHTRA STATE POLICE, http://mahapolice.gov.in/ mahapolice/jsp/temp/arrestfaq.jsp (last
visited Mar. 13, 2011) (detailing procedures in Maharash- tra under countrys criminal procedure code).
49
See id.
50
See LAW COMMISSION OF INDIA, SEVENTY-EIGHTH REPORT: CONGESTION OF UNDER-TRIAL PRISONERS IN JAILS 5 (1979),
http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/51-100/Report78.pdf (defining undertrial prisoners in a wide sense even to include persons
who are in judicial custody on remand during investigation) [hereinafter LAW COMMISSION OF INDIA].
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51 http://www.article2.org/mainfile.php/0702/313/
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of the
challenges facing the Indian criminal justice system, and thus sustained, long-term
change is unlikely in the near future. Con- sider, for example, the governments
recently passed set of amend- ments to the Code of Criminal Procedure. Among the
new provisions in the law include tightening the circumstances under which the police
can make arrests, increasing the number of bailable and compound- able offenses,
and
using
video
technology during
the
presented above. The reaction, however, from defenders of the status quo has been
swift. Some have said that the police now will be hamstrung in their investigative
powers.
Others have noted that the amendments dilute the deterrence effect
on potential criminals. Some lawyers and public officials have even gone
on strike to express their dismay in the changes.
Criminal law scholar, Tarunabh Khaitan, has provided an insightful analysis of these
amendments and
the
responses. As he
notes,
opposing lawyers, have been questionable from the start. As already mentioned, many
Indian litigators are paid per court appearance. With the possible reduction in the
number of arrests as a result of the amendments, there is an unstated assumption
among
these
lawyers that
their
Khaitan explains, there will still be work for these lawyers in court.
Under the
proposed changes it will be on behalf of those sitting in jails who, under the new
amendments, should not be.
Regardless, Khaitan, like us, is less-than-sanguine about the impact the amendments
will have on the penal process, observing that they likely appear set to join the ranks
of:
Acts duly passed
25 | P a g e
brought into
force by the
the
establishment of independent
committees to moni- tor how quickly undertrial cases are adjudicated. In addition, we
sup- port courtroom mobility, whereby judges would travel to the jails currently
holding undertrial detainees in order to accelerate the pre-trial
systemically,
eradicate the
process.
thoughtful measures
More
to
system is of critical
importance if real changes are to be seen. And then there is the responsibility of the
legal pro- fession itself to play a more substantive role in ensuring that self-serving delays
are eliminated and that a greater culture of pro bono legal services gains wider acceptance
within the bar.
The stark reality is that in addition to top-down legislation
that attempts to
27 | P a g e
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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