Administration of criminal justice 'most neglected sphere': ex-CJI U U Lalit

New Delhi, Nov 16 (PTI) Voicing concern over the dismal conviction rate, former Chief Justice of India U U Lalit on Sunday said the administration of criminal justice is the most neglected sphere in the government apparatus and favoured separating the investigative wing of police from the rest of the force involved in normal law and order duties.

The former CJI, batting for reforms to prevent the abuse of criminal laws and ensure that no innocent is prosecuted, said he would not like his daughters to live in an environment where there was even the slightest chance of laws being misused.

Addressing a conference organised by the Ekam Nyaay Foundation, Lalit said that as a lawyer, judge and professor of law for the last 42 years, he had observed that in the country's criminal jurisprudence and the way it was administered, "the administration of criminal justice is perhaps the most neglected sphere in the apparatus of government".

He said that police officers or investigators did not have the kind of professional equipment or education that the force deserved.

"And that perhaps was the lament which was expressed by the Supreme Court in that famous Prakash Singh case (of 2006 mandating police reforms), that we must separate or segregate the investigative wing from the normal law and order issues, so that the very same police officer does not double up as the person in charge of law and order and the one taking up the mantle as an investigator," the ex-CJI said.

He said that the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was changed in 1973, dispensing with the earlier idea of a magistrate recording the statements of witness and then committing the matter for trial.

"We now rest content with what is called the statements recorded by the police under Section 161 (of the CrPC) or whatever is the equivalent under Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), but these statements are never signed, and many of the statements are resiled from when the matter reaches trial," ex-CJI Lalit said.

He said that in this particular situation, the conviction rate in criminal matters across the country remained at around 20 per cent.

"Now, leave aside this 498 A (of the IPC regarding cruelty charges by a married woman), issues, or the allied matters, the rate of conviction is less than 5 per cent. Now that tells you the story," the ex-CJI said.

Citing statistics, he said in criminal matters, four out of the five undertrials languishing in prisons were bound to be eventually acquitted.

"So, therefore, what does that mean? Are we not taking somebody in custody who ultimately is going to be completely discharged and found to be innocent, or at least it is said that the crime has not been proved against him?" the former CJI said.

He said that a lawyer once actually described the entire process in a witty manner, saying that the law enforcement machinery is like cats, which are employed to catch the mice.

"10 years of running after that so-called mice, and finally, it turns out that it was not a mouse, but it was a rabbit. Now, where does society stand? So, therefore, do we not, or should we not, insulate our system in such a way that perhaps innocent rabbits are not run after and given a chase for life, and at the end of that chase, they are left a sort of huffing and panting," ex-CJI Lalit said.

"So therefore, does not society owe it to such persons what is legally and morally due to them?" he added.

Former CJI Lalit said the way out was to "galvanise the machinery in such a way that it leaves out chances of an innocent getting tracked to the court, an innocent getting prosecuted, and an innocent getting tired of the entire process." "I won't like my daughters to live in that environment where, perhaps, there is the slightest chance that the laws can be misused," he added.

Regarding the misuse of rape laws, he said that a magistrate, at the first available opportunity, could record the statement of the alleged victim so that it became a statement or confession under oath and not just a statement recorded by the police.

"Maybe our system must be such that if there is a false accusation, then the charge of false or malicious prosecution should not be left for a second kind of trial to be undertaken after the conclusion of the first one, but a finding could be recorded by the presiding officer of the court that this is a false accusation," the ex-CJI said.

"Now the accuser must be sort of punished, so therefore we must have these kinds of safety valves at every juncture, at the stage of investigation, at the stage of conduct of trial, at the stage of inquiry by the magistrates," he added.

Lalit said that many times, young men and women enter into a relationship with their eyes open, but when something goes wrong after a year ot two, the woman says the man took advantage, resulting in the beginning of criminal proceedings.

"And in a court of law, the capsule is given a sugar-coated kind thing; that on the pretext or promise to marry, I was taken advantage of, and so therefore it becomes a charge under (IPC Sections) 376 (rape) 420 (cheating), so on and so forth," he said.

He said there could be elements of truth in such charges, but there were grey areas as well.

"And it is those shades of grey that we, as a system, must ensure that an innocent is not being prosecuted. Not being prosecuted or subjected to unnecessary restraint or arrest," ex-CJI Lalit said.

He wondered how, in such matters, an accused's arrest furthered the cause of investigation? "Something may have happened two years back, or some such thing. Yet, day in and day out, we find that the investigators put the liberty of that person at their end, and these are some of the issues that need a deeper kind of understanding," the former CJI said.

He said these issues needed special attention.

"And that is what this conference seeks to achieve. The idea that: let there be churning of ideas." "It is through this 'amrit manthan' (churning of the ocean) that perhaps, I think something may emerge out of that, and what may emerge may perhaps be for the good of the society, for the betterment of the surroundings, and for the real cause of justice," ex-CJI Lalit said. PTI MNR RT RT