The Hindu “Preferrably we should set a goal that no trial exceeds 3 years, and no appeal from a trial should take over a year,” Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha said in his Independence Day annual speech on Friday. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Criminal justice delivery system has failed so much that the process itself has become a punishment, Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha said in his 68 Independence Day annual speech on Friday.
It offers nothing more than pain, suffering, human rights exploitation and deprivation of liberty, especially to the most vulnerable sections of the society, he said.
“A curious and tragic paradox is that our prisons houses more undertrial prisoners than convicts. In almost all central prisons, more than 50 percent are undertrial prisoners, in district prisons more than 72 percent are undertrial prisoners. The process itself has become a punishment. As head of judiciary, I cannot feel more pain than that,” Chief Justice Lodha said.
“Preferrably we should set a goal that no trial exceeds 3 years, and no appeal from a trial should take over a year,” he said.
He asked whose fault is it that men and women languish in jail without dignity and freedom, awaiting trial.
“I was shocked to learn that 2 lakh criminal trials are pending all over the country which are more than 5 years old and 40,000 trials are pending which are over 10 years old. In the Supreme Court by the end of the years, over 65000 cases are pending. This is peanuts compared to what we are seeing all over the country,” the Chief Justice said.
He said conviction rates have also abysmally dipped due to corruption and ineptitude of the law enforcement agencies, starting with the local investigation officer.
He pointed to how conviction rates slumped from 62.5 percent in 1972 to 32 percent in 2012.
“A robbery is implicated as theft, a rape is implicated as molestation, a kidnapping is registered as elopement. Conversely, a molestation is registered as rape, a theft is registered as robbery and elopement becomes kidnapping. The result is there is no legal evidence to sustain the conviction,” Chief Justice Lodha said.
He criticised how lawyers treat the delay in criminal justice delivery as an opportunity instead of a blemish.
Referring to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, sitting on the same dais, he said as a minister who is also in charge of telecom and IT sector, it is “high time that tools of technology is provided to the police, the prosecution and judicial officers” for quick delivery of criminal justice.
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