Malimath Committee report

Law should not stumble, in a way that those who defy it go free and those who seek its protection lose hope.

Why in News?

• Recommendations of the committee are being revisited by the central Govt.
• As the law and order problem in the country is deteriorating and crimes are increasing in all spheres be it against Women, Cyber, Economic Crime, or organised crimes.
• The Malimath committee gave 158 recommendations but these were not implemented by the successive govt.

Criminal Justice System in India

Criminal justice system is more than 100 years old in India and it need to be reviewed as the type of crime has changed with the use of technology and other aspects.

Objective of the Malimath Committee

• Malimath committee was established to propose reform in the criminal Justice System and constitutional provisions related to it.
• To suggest whether there is need to re-write the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or the Indian Evidence Act to fulfil the aspiration of citizens and to accommodate these with changing nature of crime.
• Further suggest the ways to synergize the relationship among Judiciary, Police and Prosecution in order to restore the confidence of common man.
• Suggest the ways to improve judicial proceedings and justice delivery to common man.

Why recommendations not implemented?

• As there is no political will with respect to implementing reform. This further widens trust deficit among police, Judiciary & local citizens.
• Resistance from within the judiciary, declaring the Judicial Appointment Commission Act unconstitutional is an example of such resistance.
• Resistance within the police force for police reform. But that won’t be a major problem if political will is there.
• Sate govt has not done their responsibility Separating law and order from investigation.

Recommendations of the Committee

It is the duty of state to protect the fundamental rights of all citizen. The Committee recommended for the review and re-enactment of the IPC, CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) and Evidence Act and these laws should take a holistic view in respect to punishment, arrestability and bailability.

Rights of Accused

• Reasonable conditions should be prescribed to regulate handcuffing and misuse of the power by the Police Officers should be regulated by amending the laws.

Investigation

• The Investigation branch should be separated from Law and Order branch.
• Further National Security Commission and the State Security Commissions should be constituted, as recommended by the National Police Commission.
• Quality of investigation need to be improved.

Prosecution

• Prosecutors are the Officers of the Court, they help the court to find the truth which is the objective of the Criminal Justice System.
• Committee recommended in each State, the post of the Director of Prosecution should be created, if not already created, and should be filled up from among suitable police officers of the rank of DGP in consultation with the Advocate General of the State.

Recommendation for Judiciary

• Committee suggested that impeachment of judges should be made easier compared to present difficult process of impeachment under which it is very difficult to impeach the guilty judges.
• Further it recommended amending article 124 and constitution of National Judicial Commission.
• In the subordinate judiciary, as far as possible assigning of civil and criminal cases to the same Judge every day should be avoided.
• The working days of the Supreme Court be raised to 206 days.
• The working days of the High Courts be raised to 231 days.

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Offences against Women

• If a man and woman are living together as husband and wife for a reasonably long period, the man shall be deemed to have married the woman according to the customary rites of either party. To bring this provision into effect Section 494 of the I.P.C (Indian Penal Code) be suitably amended.
• Committee recommended “whosoever has sexual intercourse with the spouse of any other person is guilty of adultery”. Under Section 497 of IPC wife should likewise be punished if she has sexual intercourse with another married man.
• Forcible penetration, penile/oral, penile/anal, object or finger/vaginal and object or finger/anal should be made a separate offence under the IPC prescribing appropriate punishment on the lines of Section 376 of I.P. Code.

Organised Crime

• Legislative proposals should be undertaken speedily to amend domestic laws to conform to the provisions of the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime.
• An inter-Ministerial Standing Committee should be constituted to oversee the implementation of the Convention.

Terrorism

• A Department of Criminal Justice should be established to carry out the recommendations of the Committee
• Also set up a Committee, through legislation, to evaluate procedural and criminal laws and further to suggest the necessary amendment.

Economic Crimes

• Such crimes should be tackled immediately through legislative and other provisions.
• Legislation on proceeds of crime be enacted on the lines of similar legislation in the U.K and Ireland. An Asset Recovery Agency at the Central level and similar agency at the State Levels may be created.

Training

• Government and Judiciary both should invest in training.

Way forward

Entire system requires reform first the need is to start with the electoral reform. As criminalisation of politics is also the major issue. Significant proportion of MP’s and MLA’s are charged with crimes, so question arises why they will support the clean judicial and Police System? Unless there is effective govt, with reformative political willpower either in the states or in the centre, reform won’t be possible. So Electoral reform along with Judicial and Police Reform should go hand in hand.

MODEL QUESTIONS

Q. Malimath committee does not deal with which of the following?

A. Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)
B. Indian Penal Code (IPC)
C. Defence Reforms
D. Indian Evidence Act

Q. Considering the law and order situation in India. Do you think Indian Criminal Justice System require immediate reforms? What are the recommendations of Malimath committee about Criminal jurisprudence? (15 Marks)

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