There are many reasons why our criminal justice system is cruel despite knowing it to be so. Thousands of under trial prisoners awaiting trial months together because bail was refused on police filed FIR. Law says he is to be presumed innocent and he has fundamental rights to be free. In the name of police justice the arrested person is to suffer imprisonment like the convicts. FIR is information not evidence, but our justice system is not perturbed that an innocent is made to suffer under the court’s order.
Intolerance of independent judiciary is certainly one of them. Judges are appointed primarily on the basis of his loyalty to the party. Those who are not appointed by the party in power are looked upon as not theirs.
Then the police have no autonomy at all. One feels sorry for them being so much under political pressure.
The system heavily weighs against the general public.
In spite of all this judiciary has not completely surrendered. Some judges are still keeping the candle of hope alight.
Cruelty happens before the trail begins. But delay in the trial is the main source of injustice. Police are of the view that pre-trial time is the time for them to deal with the arrested ones. Bail must be refused and the arrested ones should be placed freely in their custody for interrogation.
We have good judges and good police officers giving us optimism to find that the judiciary is not completely subdued. Yet, helplessness of the people is wide spread and suffering too painful.
There are many innocent people in jail then convicted ones. Let the politics be as cruel as it could be. But when is produced before the court humanity has to be at work.
We all know that the government want judiciary for their politics of sending arrested ones for imprisonment. There is no hurry for trial. The government can amusingly say they have not sent anybody to jail and the law must take its course. The blame is borne by the courts.
The government lawyer opposes bail as vigorously as they can know otherwise their jobs are at stake. The government lawyers are to be state lawyers free from government’s interference. There is a law drafted to this end but not taken into consideration.
We have a law of detention which the government is not using. They find the court cases are convenient for stigmatised all politicians as criminals. Our objection is to keep the judiciary off politics. Do not ask the court to deal with them.
The main responsibility of the police is to prevent crimes and not fill jails with innocent people. Their arrest does not make a person guilty to suffer in jail.
It is the judges who humanise the law for justice. There lies the difference between police idea of justice and justice under law and humanity.
Some people have justification to say that we have two justice systems. One is police justice system under which police forwarded FIR (First Information Report) is sufficient to make the arrested person to be punished with imprisonment.
The other one is called the judicial system where a person is punished with imprisonment or even death after the trial if he is found guilty of the offence alleged in the FIR on the basis of credible evidence.
The question needs to be answered seriously what is the difference between suffering imprisonment before one is found guilty and suffering after found guilty? We take ordinary people’s lives too ordinarily.
Let us not pretend of not knowing that big crimes are above law and justice system. If at all criminal proceedings are to start against big crimes, we cannot be sure who suffers for whose crime.
So to ordinary helpless people we must not be unnecessarily harsh before they are found guilty to ensure we have the same justice system for all. Besides, a poor person in jai might mean ruining his family. Easy use of filing cases for imprisonment is not helpful for the police to remain honest law enforcers.
We know judges are trying their best to humanise the justice system. But their number is few. They are undoubtedly under pressure. All over world the justice system is under pressure of one kind or another.
Let the government do whatever it can with other institutions, but the judiciary as long it remains judiciary, justice must mean humanity.
Crimes are rising because we are not sure if the real criminals are in jail.
The universal legal principle is a person is innocent before he is found guilty. On top of it we have fundamental rights to be at liberty to enjoy freedom unless restrained by law. There is no law for denying bail just because an FIR has been submitted by the police. The court has only the discretion to refuse bail in exceptional circumstance of the crime alleged if he is unsafe for the society.
The government inability to control drug business is not the court’s to put him in jail without trial. If the government feels strongly then special arrangement should be made for speedy trial. Thousands of young ones are being punished with imprisonment merely on the allegation of drug related offence. There is consideration how this has opened the gate for abuse. In the same way Nari O Shishu Ain is abused freely using the police.
A person’s freedom to move or do his job for earning his and his family’s livelihood so easily and unconscionably deprived of by not releasing him on bail with arrest and confining him in jail.
Granting bail is to put the person in custody of the court. A person on bail is not completely free. He has to follow the conditions of bail.
If we are honest to our conscience then as the lawyers and judges we both know horrendous abuse of criminal justice system.
We do not want the courts to be abused. The police should know that refusing bail is court’s discretion and getting bail is the right of the accused. They should be asked to make the case ready for speedy trial. Keeping an innocent person in jail is not fun.
In fact, it is the collective sacred responsibility of the judges, lawyers and the police to make the society kinder and just.
