Richa Banka
Jan 9, 2023
The roles of the judiciary and the executive are important to bring those who have fallen foul of the law back to the societal mainstream, Supreme Court justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Monday, advocating an alternative method of crime and punishment to decide cases carrying a jail term of less than 10 years.
Speaking at the first legal aid seminar organised by the Rotary District 3011, justice Kaul cited examples of plea bargaining and settlement to resolve disputes in foreign countries and said that in India, people are apprehensive to accept the label of falling foul with the law.
“Somebody who may have fallen foul of the legal system of the society, it is not that for all times he has to spend that. We have been trying to emphasize that lesser offences should be lowered through a particular methodology. Interestingly, I went to the US under an exchange programme with the department of justice. They have a system of plea bargaining, resolution of disputes through settlement. California is one of the largest areas; 97-98% of these cases are solved without going to trial. However, in India, 99.99% of cases go to trial,” he said.
Unless we develop a methodology to resolve the disputes, the cases would increase. If it is not resulting in very serious or heinous offence, and we are talking about sentences between seven years, there can be a methodology to compensate the person whose rights have been infringed, and to see whether these people have come within the parameters of law,” the judge said during the event.
Justice Kaul said that reformation of the huge number of under trials in the prisons is most important and all stakeholders should work in that direction.
Saying that it would be worthwhile to see how these people be assisted into their path to reformation, where they can be easily accepted by society, justice Kaul asserted, “Getting back the people to the society is very important. On the law day, the President after completing her official speech decided to turn her own thoughts and experiences and she talked about necessary issues and about reformation.”
“I think that the government would listen more to the President, than us,” the judge said.
Speaking on the challenges faced by the Indian legal system, justice Kaul said the two major ones are the volume of cases and the inability to resolve these disputes within a reasonable time frame.
He noted that more than more than 50% cases are by the government and government authorities, adding that since the cost of litigation is borne by the people, the cases can go on for months and years.
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