By Nishita Makkar
Published on: August 14,2021 14:00 IST
Introduction
As we know, Law creates a balance between the society and state. It has its roots from the very ancient period of the history. In different eras, there used to be different laws and different procedures to seek justice under them. In the modern period, laws again transformed and in India, it was started by the British people.
The Indian Criminal Justice system came into existence in 1860 under the report of first Law Commission led by Lord Macaulay. British era played a vital role in the Indian law history where codification was law was done.
After the codification started there was felt a certain need of the procedures and rules to be followed that led to the development of The Code of Civil Procedure as well as the Code of Criminal Procedure.
These have been designed to look after the process of the administration and enforcement of substantive criminal laws as well as civil laws.
In between the procedures available, a formal examination of evidence is done by a judge, typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings or we can say that a Trial is a court hearing to legally determine the result of a particular case.
This trial can last up to several weeks even could take years. In this Article, we will investigate about the cause and effects of delay in Trials and how it has deepen the people’s distrust in judiciary.
What is importance of Fair Trial?
As in Criminal law, one principal object is to protect society by punishing offenders. However, justice and fair play require that no one should be punished without a fail trial.
A person might be under a high suspicion of guilt, even he might have caught red-handed, still he can’t be punished unless and until he is tried and found to be guilty by a competent court. Because there is a popular saying in law by Benjamin Franklin, “It is better to let 100 criminals go free than to imprison 1 Innocent man”.
In the administration of justice, the focus should not only be on that justice must be done, it should be appeared to be done, which is only possible by fair trials by recording everything done under the trial. The accused is not guilty until it is proved by an impartial trial and competent Courts.
Hence, it is necessary that every person accused of some offence is brought before the court for trial and that all the evidence appearing against him available to the court for deciding if he is guilty or innocent.
What is a Criminal Trial? What are its Types?
A Criminal Trial is designed to resolve accusations imposed on any person for a crime[1]. Different rights are present for the accused to defend him. It generally initiates with framing of charge and ends with the conviction or acquittal by the court. As per CrP.C. the procedure to conduct trial of an accused charged with an offence.
The Criminal Trials can be divided into five parts-
- Complaints to Magistrate
This has been provided under the provisions of Section 200, Chapter XV of CrP.C If the local police station and the superior officer refuse to register FIR, the complainant can approach to the Magistrate directly to seek the police investigation. It is to be noted that it does not bound the magistrate.
- Sessions Trials
There are certain categories of cases which are triable by the Sessions Judge. The provisions of a Sessions Case are provided under Chapter XVIII from Section 225 to 237 of CrP.C.
The cases taken under this Trial should have the tenure of punishment more than seven years of imprisonment or Life Imprisonment or Death like all sexual offences against Women and children.
- Trial of Warrant Cases
Chapter XIX deals with the Warrant Triable cases as which are punishable for a tenure more than 2 years of imprisonment or more. This can begin either by filing an FIR in a police station or before a Magistrate.
Procedure of trial of Warrant cases is provided under Sections 238 and 250 of CrP.C.
- Trial of Summon Cases
Summon cases are those cases where the tenure of punishment does not exceed two years. The procedure is provided in Chapter XX of the Code from Sections 251 to 259.
- Summary Trials
The procedure for a trial of a summary triable case is similar to warrant and summon cases. These include the cases where no sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding three months shall be passed.
Such cases are given under Chapter XXI of CrP.C. from Section 260 to 265.
What is Delay in Trial and how is it caused?
Delay in Trials and disposing of pending cases in the courts is one of the leading problems of the law administration in the phase. A lot of causes are responsible for this delay where the problem has been increased because of the Covid-19 pandemic, when even the courts are not working properly.
Whether big or petty, most cases are pending because of the present circumstances. Even the online mode has not proved to be supportive enough to combat with the situation.
As per views of Advocate Puru Gupta[2], “The main reason of the Delay in Trials is untrained judges who are not been able to make decision that to whom they should listen first. Also, there is lack of impartial as well as the fair attitude to provide the result of the suit. They even don’t know how to write judgment which even results in delay of appeals.”
He also quoted that, “Justice Sangvan from Punjab and Haryana High Court has been disappointed with the Local courts for not writing the judgment properly and is advising to give judges proper training which can save a lot of time while taking appeals.
Also, the pandemic has slowed down the process so much which has made the system more lethargic and due which public has suffered a lot and pendency of work has been increased so much. Hence, lack of professionalism in the system is also a big cause for the delays.
Lack of proper evidence as well as delay in investigation process can also contribute to the problem. Then comes the appeals which get started after the Lower Courts to District Courts then to the Sessions Courts then to the High Court which next goes to the Supreme Court and then the person can go to President of India.
Even president can be approached with 4-5 types of appeals as referred in Mukesh and Anr. Vs NCT Delhi (Nirbhaya Rape Case)[3]. Even in some cases, it is seen that the person (accused) gets died even before granted his punishment.
One big reason is Media Trial where it has seen that some famous personalities with the help of Media leads to a mass movement where media already declares the result of a particular case and which also creates a lot of hindrances the case trials and even submission of proper proofs and investigation leading to lot of delays.
Corruption during investigation also plays a vital role for the set back of the whole system which generally leads to the whole investigation on a wrong path which again is a cause of delay of the whole process as its result showcases nothing but wastage of time.”
There are also some other causes which can delay the trials:
- Inadequate number of Judges
As we all know that number of judges in the Courts is much less than the required number which has proved to be a root cause of the delay in trials. The dates are not given or are extended simultaneously as there is no one to hear the case. This leads to pendency of cases in bulk.
- Gathering of Testimony and Witness
The gathering of testimony is a very crucial step in the trial which can lead to the easy judgment giving for the case. This process also takes a lot of time while examination as well as the cross examination of the witness.
There is no effective system used till date. Even in some cases witness shows unwillingness to appear in the court.
- Framing of Charges:
Framing of Charges does take much time against the accused, which is generally seen as an opportunity by the accused to avoid the case by not being present at the day when they fix the charges and achieve this through various ways such as providing fake medical certificate claims or adjournment.
Hence, through this research we got to know a lot of causes which are responsible for the delay in Trials which is a great problem in road of justice.
What are the effects of Delay in Trial?
There can be two types of effects of delays in trial that are short term effects and long term effects and the ones that can be seen in long term.
- Short-Term Effects
As the short term effects of the delay in the trials can be seen on both victim as well as accused. For the victim it can provide a way long term to be tolerated for seeking of justice. The evidences can be removed which can affect the investigation process. This can lead to injustice to the victim.
This delay also effects criminal who is supposed to be free within the period on bails and can lead the actual criminal saved from his punishment. Also, fabrication of documents and evidences can be done in such a long period. This can prove to be a bane to the whole judgment as well as judicial system.
- Long term effects
This can also result in long term effect which is distrust of the public in the judiciary. The pendency of lots of cases can result in collapse of judicial system leading public to take laws in their hands which can spread violence and can prove to be a threat to public order. This can bring again the age of “Eye for an eye” rule.
Conclusion
As concluded from the above mentioned, we came to know that trial is a very important part of the judiciary system for seeking fair and unflawed justice and giving proper punishment to those who deserves.
Also, there are various types of Trials defined in CrP.C. which takes different types of cases or different ways to admit those cases. But in India “Delay in Trials” is a matter of concern. The situation has worsened in the pandemic times.
This can lead to un-justice to innocents and even can lead to the criminals to set free as the case may be. This can be proved to be a stigma on whole judicial system in the coming future and there will be a time when judiciary would collapse and the whole society will be in totally in hustle.
Hence, there is a need to modify the whole system and adapt the precautions to maintain people’s trust in judiciary and justice. The present scenario of the Indian law system, “Cases are pending, judgments needs to clear. We don’t know this time Justice would take how many years.”
References
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Harsh Sawant, Advocate, “Types of Criminal Trials”, available at: legalformatsindia.com (Last visited on August 9th, 2021) ↑
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Advocate Puru Gupta (PH/3615/2020), LLB. From Punjabi University Patiala, Currently Practicing at Punjab and Haryana High Court, Email id: [email protected] ↑
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Mukesh and Anr. Vs NCT Delhi (2017) 6 SCC 1 ↑