The central government is not happy with the way the criminal cases are being viewed and dealt in the country. The government is all set to present a new national policy on criminal justice to have a revolutionary change in the system.
One of the key changes in the system is the introduction of a Federal Crime, that is a long awaited demand actually. With the introduction of the ‘Federal Crime’, the terror attacks will be handled by a Central agency. The matter will not be left to the respective states where the terror attack would happen in future.
According to the proposed policy, there should be some major reforms in the criminal justice system. A committee on the Criminal Justice System, which is headed by Prof N R Madhava Menon, drafted a new policy and sent it to Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Home Affairs on July 10.
However, the draft proposal is still waiting for the green signal from all political parties represented on the committee. Moreover, the UPA government is thinking to make some key amendments in the proposed draft policy such as:
# Capital punishment to be maintained in the fresh policy for the ‘rarest of the rare’ cases.
# Criminal offences should be categorized into four main classes that would depend upon the relentlessness of the crime [1] Social Welfare Offences, [2] Correctional Offences, [3] Penal Offences, [4] Economic Offences.
# The concept of ‘Federal crime’ should be introduced. The constitution says to bring the law and order problem as a state subject, however, the draft says that this is need of the time for the Union to be more actively involved in the fight against terrorism, communal violence, organized crime. The incidents of serious financial frauds should be in the sphere of central sunbjects.
# The draft says that without practicing any dilution the constitutional rights of citizens accused of crime, the law should be able to put some positive obligations on accused in a practice to assist the court in the discovery of the truth.
# According to the draft, the clause ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ has got ‘blunted by the passage of time’. It should be redefined by the legislature.
# Audio/video recordings should be there at the time of making statements to police by anybody.
# There should be an apposite legislation on DNA typing.
