Effective Investigation, Speedy Trial & Timely Justice

The objectives of the criminal justice system that we are enjoined to manage is to ensure a) prevention of crime b) Punishment proportionate to the crime committed c) that no innocent is punished for no fault of his/hers. Whereas the first objective is desired to be pursued through effective policing and maintenance of law & order as they are executive functions of the Civil and Police Administration, the other two objectives are pursued with the assistance of courts. Court is entrusted with the responsibility of dispensing justice on the basis of the results of investigation brought before the court by way of submission of charge sheet by police. On this basis of charge sheet the accused is prosecuted in the court by the State which appoints a number of officers designated as Public Prosecutor(PP), Additional Public Prosecutors(APPs) and Assistant Prosecution Officers(APOs). After the charge sheet is submitted the Court initiates the process of trial on the basis of oral and documentary evidences produced by both the sides i.e prosecution and defense with respect to the crime alleged to have been committed by the accused thus charge sheeted by the investigation. It has to reach a conclusion as to whether the prosecution has been able to prove the commission of crime by the accused or not and accordingly judgements or order leading to conviction, acquittal or discharge is passed by the court. A little reflection will show that the journey of dispensing justice by virtue of the procedure contained therein becomes a long drawn one often inviting critical remarks from  i) those having direct interest in it i.e accused and witnesses. ii) those who are legally enjoined to monitor this journey i.e prosecution and superior courts. iii) Media iv) Government v) State on behalf of which the accused is sued for such commission of crime vi) Last but not the least the Society at large. This warrants to take a call on how to facilitate this journey so that it is not unduly halted at any station and inordinate delay is pre-empted without compromise with the principle of natural justice. At the same time it is also required that let no one find an opportunity to comment that processes adopted in the dispensation of justice were hasty and murky ones because of shortshrifting of judicial procedure under the compulsion of pronouncing judgements. Thus the process of dispensation of justice should be such as to take into account both of the well-known maxims- Justice Delayed is Justice  Denied & Justice Hurried is Justice Burried.It is here why we need to eliminate the unnecessary delay that feed on a) Adjournment of courts b) Lack of preparedness of prosecution or defenses having been made grounds of such adjournments inter alia.c)Delay in submission of service report of summons issued by the court. d) Non production of prosecution/defense witnesses. e) Vacancy of court to hear the case resulting in excessive caseload on a particular court. f) Failure on part of investigation to produce case diaries despite repeated reminder from the court. g) Bail Petition being accepted by the court on account of non submission of charge sheet within schedule time. h) Delay in Sanction of prosecution owing to which the courts often find difficulty in taking cognizance i) Willful non appearance on account of lack of service of summons or otherwise in respect of witnesses and as a consequence thereof date after date is fixed for want of adoption of coercive measures to ensure their attendance in court. j) Non appearance of such witnesses as are government servants like medical officers/investigation officers(IOs) and other government officials on account of their retirement or transfer elsewhere and their permanent address being not known by the prosecution. k) Failure on part of the investigation to properly preserve the article seized and its inability to produce the same as and when called for by the court. l) Delay in obtaining the forensic report of the seized article dispatched for forensic examination by the forensic lab. These delays are indicative and by no means exhaustive. If the same are slashed to their actual minimum, our objective of timely justice will be achieved to a considerable extent. This is the rationale behind what is popularly referred to as Speedy Trial which ipso facto is no where mentioned in the Code of Criminal Procedure. All that is indicated in this statute in this context is Section 309 of the Cr.P.C which provides that all trials be carried as expeditiously as possible and when examination of witnesses has once begun, the same shall be continued from day to day until all the witnesses in attendance have been examined, unless the court finds adjournments of the same beyond the following day to be necessary for reasons to be recorded. Thus it is clear that high degree of professional competence is required on part of prosecution and investigation to make Speedy Trial and timely justice a living reality.
                                              R.R.Prabhakar