Plea Bargain

In India Courts are overburdened with litigations. There are so many reasons for over burdening but one of the good reason is that proportionately to the case number of courts are less, and applications of procedural law consumes lot of time and it result into delay. “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” that is the reason people usually frustrate by litigations in India. Recently there is a good realization amounts all stockholders of law that there should be quick disposal of cases and prompt justice delivered system. Considering this aspect, to lessen the burden of court alternate dispute resolution system is encouraged and having good result in the form of mediation and arbitration. Even civil courts under section 18 resort to settle the matter through mediation. In criminal arbitration of justice now fast track courts are doing very good role and delay in criminal trials to some extent is minimize may not be fully controlled. But for that we have to give credit to Supreme Court of India by giving directions in number of Public interest Litigation started from Hussainara Khatun & Others Vs Home Secretary, State of Bihar ( 1979 AIR 1369,1979 SCR(3)532). There is also a one thought to introduce plea bargaining in India. Plea bargain usually occurs any time before verdict is passed. Good thing about Plea Bargain is that it concludes a criminal case without a trial. PLEA BARGAINING IN INDIA Prior to the Criminal law (Amendment) Act, 2005 the concept of Plea Bargain was totally unknown. In state of UP vs Chandrika( AIR 2000SC 164) and Kripalsingh Vs State of Haryana 2000(1) Crimes 53 (SC). Supreme Court of India observed that the concept of Plea Bargaining is against the Public Policy and further said that neither that trial Courts nor High Court has Jurisdiction to bypass the minimum sentence prescribed by the law. Before proceeding to plea bargaining the concept now started introducing in India, it would be good known what is pleas bargaining. There is no perfect or simple definition of Plea Bargaining. Simply we can put it and say that a plea bargaining is a contractual bargaining between the prosecution and in defendant accused concerning disposition of a criminal charge. However, unlike other contractual obligations it is not enforceable until a Judge approved it. From the point of view accused means who trends conviction and demand lesser sentence where he likely to be convicted. As researcher written about that the Plea bargaining, introduced in India from the year 2005 and not earlier. But there are certain provisions n earlier Acts also i.e. provision in chapter XXI of Crpc. The same has taken place through amendment I criminal law (Amendment) Act, 2005 and came into the effect from July 2005. Recognizing that there are significant differences in criminal procedures as well as in the role and status of various agencies in different countries, the Act does not give recognition to any existing practice akin to plea-bargaining. Instead, it lays down procedures with a distinct feature of enabling an accused to an application for plea bargaining in the court where the trial is pending. The Act further requires the court after receiving the application, must examine the accused in camera to ascertain whether the application has been filed voluntarily. Once the court is convinced that the accused is participating, in the plea-bargain voluntarily, the court must then issue notice to the Public prosecutor or the complainant to work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case. The negotiation of such a mutually acceptable settlement is left to the free will of the prosecution (including the victim) and the accused. If a settlement is reached, the court can award compensation based on it to the victim and then hear the parties on the issue of punishment. The Court may release the accused on probation if the law allows for it; if a minimum sentence is provided for the offence committed’ the accused may be sentenced to half of such minimum punishment; above, then the accused may be sentences to one fourth of the punishment provided or extendable for such offences. The accused may also avail of the benefit under section 428 of the code of criminal Procedure, 1973 which allows setting of the period of detention undergone by the accused against the sentence of imprisonment in plea bargained settlement. The court must deliver the Judgement in open Court according to the terms of the mutually agreed disposition and formula prescribed for sentencing including victim Compensation. IT may be noted that this Judgement is final and no appeal lies apart from a writ petition to the State high Court under article 226 and 226 of the Constitution or a special leave petition to the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution.IN addition to above the Act also provides:• If the accused is a first time offender, the court will have the option of releasing him/her on probation. Alternatively, the court may grant half the minimum punishment for the particular offence.• The plea-bargaining is applicable only in respect of those offences for which punishment of imprisonment is up to a period of 7 years; it does not apply where such offence affect the socio-economic condition of the country or has been committed against a woman or a child below the age of 14 years;• The application for plea – bargaining should be filed by the accused voluntarily;• The statement or facts stated by an accused in an application for plea-bargaining shall not be used for any other purpose other than for plea bargaining;This was the concept of plea bargaining, in a nutshell, as included in Indian Criminal Justice Process. It would be pertinent here to understand how different the above process is from the plea bargaining as practiced in United States. In India rate of conviction is not high, on the contrary acquittal rate is more i.e. why accused do not resort to plea-bargaining. Because in plea bargaining once you accept guilt, conviction is must. When most of the accused are told that the will be acquitted by court they usually do not come forward for plea bargaining. Therefore unless and until conviction rate is not become higher, there will not be good result of plea bargaining what actually was happened in USA same cannot be happened in India immediately. The need of the time is to revamp criminal administration of the justice.