The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Malimath for radical changes in criminal justice system

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 03, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Malimath for radical changes in criminal justice system

Staff Reporter

The system has totally collapsed, says the former Chief Justice

BANGALORE: The former Chief Justice of Karnataka and Kerala High Courts V.S. Malimath has stressed the need for radical changes in the criminal justice system to make it more effective in controlling and preventing crime.

Speaking at the seminar on "Crime prevention and public participation," Mr. Malimath said the present criminal justice system had totally collapsed and was not acting as a deterrent for criminals. The seminar was jointly organised by Bangalore University's Department of Social Work and Indian Society of Criminology on Saturday.

Mr. Malimath noted that with the rate of conviction on criminal offences being low there was very less risk factor for a person committing an offence. "A national survey shows the conviction rate around seven per cent. Ninety-three per cent of people get acquitted, resulting in criminals moving in the society without any stigma," he said.

The low conviction rate, Mr. Malimath said, was a "bad reflection on the ideals followed by our judges."

"As these ideals have not yielded fruits there is a need to follow different ideals," he said.

An academic exercise needed to be done to reorient the system to give justice to victims of crime, which includes both an individual and the society.

In this regard, Mr. Malimath said, his report on Reforms to Criminal Justice System had several recommendations to make the police, the prosecutors and the judiciary strong. It included taking statement of the accused and also treating witnesses to criminal cases in a better manner. "But without seeing grave danger being caused to society the human right activists have been objecting to the recommendations," he said.

Gandhi Das, chairman of the Department of Social Work, spoke.

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