Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Improve criminal law carefully' that was published in Newsband

Improve criminal law carefully

Criminal law revamp should be done, but with due care. Such an exercise must be pursued with care and caution. The Justice V.S. Malimath Committee on reforming the criminal justice system made 158 recommendations, and since then some of these have become law.

There is some understandable disquiet about the state of criminal justice administration in the country and there is a crying need for a wide range of reforms. The widespread perception that there is corruption on the one hand and a deep nexus between crime syndicates and politicians on the other, has added to the erosion of public confidence in the justice delivery system.

Substantive changes in the way criminal justice is administered will have to be done with great circumspection. The criminal justice system definitely needs a revamp in our country. Most of all, it is high time the archaic Indian Penal Code drafted in 1860 and the Criminal Procedure Code enacted in 1974 is also re-drafted and made more concise and crisp.

Most accused go scot free due to sheer lack of evidence even when it appears a clear case of the crime committed by the accused himself. Something should be done about this. In fact, some are of the opinion that most accused go scot-free not due to "sheer lack of evidence" alone but because of collusion between corrupt prosecution/defense lawyers and corrupt Judges.

Human (social animal) basic nature is selfishness, smartness (one up man ship) on the desire side and fear on the other side. It’s only " Fear' of law, elders, God, Stick which can keep one’s desires (especially those which infringe on others’ rights) in check. For the Fear' factor, to keep ones unhealthy desires in check, an important perception is also on the probability of being caught, the speed thereof and the hurt the verdict can cause the culprit.

No short cuts, to compensate for the failings that have got deeply embedded in the system. Many are of the opinion that Salman Khan could be considered a symbol of how justice is thwarted in India.

One of the basic tenets of justice is that it is better to let go a criminal unpunished rather than punishing an innocent man. While this is great in principle, in practice this has allowed the proliferation of criminals of all types to hold on to power either through politics or through mafia type dons. Our record after independence is a glaring example of this.

The cure sought should not turn worse than malady. Circumspection should be the guideline in the approach to reform the criminal law. The reform should not pave catastrophic for the accused. The proposed replacement of the standard 'beyond reasonable doubt' with 'clear and convincing' standard definitely weighs against the victim, for the latter standard can turn subjective. The 'confession' provision provides a tool in the hands of the police to turn the State into a police 'raj'.

Judicial system is consider as the messiah in the whole world because here it provides justice to victims and punishment to accused. So, at least it should not be any corruption in this system.