Dr Asangba Tzudir
Since the times of Shakespeare and even before, there have been issues regarding the “law’s delay” and thus it has become a common perception that cases generally take too long to complete trial and pronounce judgment, and therefore, normatively a matter of ‘delay’ versus ‘haste.’
The recently released ‘Prison Statistics in India’ by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that the number of prisoners at the end of the year 2019 stood at 4,78,600 as against 4,03,739 which is the actual capacity of prisons. The classification of the prisoners is 1,44,125 convicts, 3,30,487 under-trial prisoners, 3223 detenues and 765 other inmates.
India’s criminal justice system has an acute backlog crisis and the latest data on pending investigations and trials attests to the fact that the crisis of pendency is getting more severe. In the context of Nagaland state, the prisoner occupancy rate stood at 30.8% as against the national average of 118.5%. However, the point of contention and therefore the reference point is that 70.4% of the prisoners in Nagaland are still awaiting trial, bringing to fore the issue of the reasons for the delay.
The slowness of trials is one primary reason. Then, there will be adjournments because of absence of witnesses and counsels. Further with the rising number of cases, a particular case usually gets only a date per month, which means that if a case is fixed on a certain date but if the witnesses fail to turn up, the case will be fixed the following month around the same time. Thus, in re-fixing a case date two months is wasted in the process without any progress.
On top of these delays caused, it is natural that both defense and prosecution need at least a certain minimum time to prepare, and often in the process the prosecution’s case tends to decay as witnesses forget, even lose interest and move away. On the flip, cutting down processing time may put justice itself on the atlar of sacrifice. On the whole, the societal implication of prolonging trial may be more adverse.
Delving in, it is pertinent to see the reasons that affects the processing time. While the processing time of cases depends a lot on the caseload, the seriousness of the crime is a pertinent consideration. The nature of the case and the degree of its complexities is another factor, and then there is also the uncertain turn of ‘case events’ leading to further complexities in the case. All these brought together in relation to the loopholes in the law and its associated Acts within the law are reasons enough for stretching the processing time. Finally, the defendants, defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges and other court participants also respond to the demands of economic, social, intellectual and professional incentives.
Caught in a dilemma of ‘delay’ versus ‘haste’ and the reasons thereof, the larger picture of justice delivery system at the end finds sacrificed where the victim is made to go through the various ordeals of not getting justice or justice delayed. On the other hand, the accused too is made to wait to hear the words ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty.’ Those guilty already knows before the trial or judgment, however, the ‘not guilty’ is made to bear the pain and the mud splattered till others see the truth.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir contributes a weekly guest editorial to the Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
