Supreme Court of India
IN RE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALSversus.
- Citation
- 2017 INSC 301
- Decided
- 30 March 2017
- Disposal
- Directions issued
Holding
The Court held that it is appropriate to issue comprehensive guidelines and direct High Courts to consider amending their Rules of Practice to remedy the identified inadequacies in criminal trials.
Summary
During a hearing of Criminal Appeal No.400/2006, Senior Counsel Mr. R. Basant highlighted several common inadequacies in criminal trial procedures, such as lack of standardized witness and exhibit lists, poor recording of depositions, and inconsistent referencing of parties and evidence. He urged the Supreme Court to issue uniform guidelines to improve trial practices across India. The Court examined the deficiencies, referenced relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Evidence Act, and various State Rules of Practice, and considered its power under Article 142 of the Constitution to issue directions. It concluded that issuing comprehensive guidelines and directing High Courts to consider amending their Rules of Practice would promote uniform best practices and better administration of criminal justice. Accordingly, the Court issued directions to the Registrars General of all High Courts, Chief Secretaries, and Advocates‑General to seek consensus on amending the Rules of Practice and to submit suggestions on other areas of concern.
Issues considered
- Whether the Supreme Court can, under Article 142 of the Constitution, issue guidelines to standardise criminal trial procedures across the country.
- What specific inadequacies in current criminal trial practices need to be addressed through uniform guidelines.
- Whether High Courts should be directed to amend their respective Rules of Practice/Criminal Manuals to incorporate the suggested best practices.
Legislation cited
- Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973s. 164, s. 207, s. 228, s. 238, s. 244, s. 251, s. 354, s. 428
- Constitution of Indias. Article 142
- Indian Evidence Act, 1872s. 145, s. 157, s. 27
Subjects
criminal trialguidelinesrules of practiceevidence recordingexhibit markingjudicial efficiencyArticle 142Supreme Court directions
Judgment
[2017] 4 S.C.R. 673
IN RE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING A
INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALS
(Suo Motu Writ (Cr!.) No. l of2017)
MARCH 30, 2017
[S. A. BOBDE AND L. NAGESWARA RAO, JJ.) B
Criminal law - Criminal trial - Common inadequacies and
deficiencies occurring in course of trial - Held: To bring about
uniform best practices to be followed by Criminal Courts across the
country, general consensus to be arrived at on the need to amend
relevant rules of Practice/Criminal Manuals - Suggestions also c
invited on other areas of concern - Kerela Criminal Rules of
Practice, 1982 - rr. 62, 132, 134 - Andhra Pradesh Criminal Rules
of Practice and Circular Orders, 1990 - r. 66 - Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 - ss. 164, 207, 228, 238, 244, 251, 354, 428 -
Evidence Act, 1872 - ss.27, 145, 157 - Constitution of India -Art.
142 - Supreme Court - Directions/Guidelines. D
CRIMINAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Suo Motu Writ (Cr!.)
No. l of2017.
Basant R., Sr. Adv., Raghenth Basant, Karlik Ashok, James
Joseph, Mishal Johari, Senthil Jagadeesan, Ms. Bina Madhavan, Ad vs.· E
f0r the Appellants.
Siddharth Luthra, Sr. Adv., Deepak Prakash, Anoopam N. Prasad,
Ali Chaudhury, Swati Ghildiyal, Kuna! Singh, Subhash Chandran,
Ms. Usha Nandini, G. Prakash, Jishnu M. L., Mrs. Priyanka Prakash,
Mrs. Beenu Prakash, Manu Srinath, Ms. Bina Madhavan, Ms. Usha
Nandini V, Advs. for the Respondents.
F
The following Order of the Court was delivered
ORDER
l. During the course of hearing of Criminal Appeal No.400/2006
and connected matters, Mr. R. Basant, learned Senior Counsel appearing G
for the appellants-complainant, pointed out certain common inadequacies
and deficiencies in the course of trial adopted by the trial court while
disposing of criminal cases. In particular, it was pointed out that though
there are beneficial provisions in the Rules of some of the High Courts
H
673
674 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2017] 4 S.C.R.
A which ensure that certain documents such as list of witnesses and the
list of exhibits/material objects referred to, are annexed to the judgment
and order itself of the trial court, these features do not exist in Rules of
some other High Courts. Undoubtedly, the judgments and orders of the
trial court which have such lists annexed, can be appreciated much better
B by the appellate courts.
2. Certain other matters were also pointed out by Mr. Basant,
learned Senior Counsel for the appellants- complainant, during the course
of arguments. He made the following submissions :
A. In the course of discussions at the Bar while considering this
ccase, this Court had generally adverted to certain common inadequacies
and imperfections that occur in the criminal trials in our country. Jventure
to suggest that in the interests of better administration of criminal justice
and to usher in a certain amount of uniformity, and acceptance of best
practices prevailing over various parts of India, this Court may consider
issue of certain general guidelines to be followed across the board by alt
D Criminal Courts in the country.
B. The following areas may be considered specifically:
1. The pernicious practice of the Trial Judge leaving the recording
of deposition to the clerk concerned and recording of evidence going on
E in more than one case in the same Court room, at the same time, under
the presence and general supervision of the presiding officer has to be
disapproved strongly and discontinued forthwith. A visit to Delhi Trial
Courts any day will reveal this sad state of affairs, I am given to
understand.
F 2. The depositions of witnesses must be recorded, in typed format,
using computers, in Court, to the dictation of the presiding officers (in
English wherever possible) so that readable true copies will be available
straightaway and can be issued to both sides on the date of examination
itself.
G 3. The deposition of each witness must be recorded dividing it
into separate paragraphs assigning para numbers to facilitc.te easy
reference to specific portions later in the course of arguments and in
Judgments.
4. Witnesses/documents/material objects be assigned specific
nomei lature and numbers like PWs/DWs/CWs (1 onwards); Ext. Pl
H
IN KE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING 675
INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALS
Ext. D/Ext. C (I onwards); MOs (I onwards) etc., so that refe1ence A
later becomes easy and less time-consuming. Kindly see the Relevant
Rules
Kerala Criminal Rules of Practice 1982
"Rule 62 - Marking of exhibits.-
B
( 1) Exhibits admitted in evidence shall be marked as follows:
(i) If filed by the prosecution, with capital letter P followed by
a numeral P 1, P2, P3 etc
(ii) If filed by defence, with capital letter D followed by a
numeral DI, D2, D3 etc C
(iii) If Court exhibits, with capital letter C followed by a numeral
Cl, C2, C3 etc.
(2) All exhibits marked by several accused shall be marked
consecutively.
D
(3) All material objects shall be marked in Arabic numbers in
continuous series, whether exhibited for the prosecution or the
defence or the Court as M.0.1, M.0.2, M.0.3, etc"
Andhra Pradesh Criminal rules of Practice and Circular Orders,
1990 E
"Rule 66 - How witness shall be referred to
· Witnesses shall be referred by their names or ranks as P.W.s., or
D.Ws., and if the witnesses are not examined, but cited in the
chargesheet, they should be referred by their names and not by
numbers allotted to them in the charge-sheet." · F
5. Every judgment must mandatorily have a preface showing the
name of the parties and an appendix showing the list of Prosecutions
Witnesses, Prosecution Exhibits, Defence Witnesses, Defence Exhibits,
Court witnesses, Court Exhibits and Material Objects. Kindly see inter
alia the Relevant rules in the Kerala Criminal Rules of Practice, 1982. G
"Rule 132'- Judgment to contain certain particulars.- The Judgment
in original decision shall, apart from the particulars prescribed by
Section 354 of the Code also contain a statement in Tabular Form
giving the following particulars, namely:-
H
676 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2017] 4 S.C.R.
A
-·-..,
l. Serial Number I
2. Name of the Police Station and the 1
Crime No. of the offence I
-
B 3. Name
4. Father's name
Description of the
5. Occupation Accused
6. Residence
c 7. Age
8. Occurrence
9. Complaint
Date of
10. Apprehension
D 11. Release on bail
12. Commitment
13. Commencement of trial
14. Close of trial
E 15. Sentence or order
16. Service of copy of judgment or
finding on accused
17. Explanation of delay
F
Note.- (1) Date of complaint in column 9 shall be the date of the
filing of the charge-sheet in respect of case instituted on police
report and the date of filing of the complaint in respect of other
case.
G (2) Date of apprehension in column 10 shall be the date of arrest.
(3) Date of commencement of trial in column 13 shall be :
(a) In summons cases, the date on which the particulars of the
offence are stated to the accused under section 251 of the
Code.
H
IN RE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING 677
INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALS
(b) In warrant cases instituted on police report, the date on A
which the documents under section 207 of the Code are
furnished to the accused and the Magistrate satisfied himself
of the same under section 238 of the Code.
(c) In other warrant cases, when the recording of evidence is
commenced under section 244 of the Code. B
(d) In Sessions trials, when the charge is read out and explained
to the accused under section 228 of the Code.
"Rule 134 - List of witnesses etc. to be Appended to Judgement.
There shall be appended to every judgment a list of the witnesses
c
examined by the prosecution and for the defence and by the
Court and also a list of exhibits and material objects marked."
·6. Once numbers are assigned to the accused, witnesses and
exhibits, they be referred to, subsequently in the proceedings and in the D
judgments with the help of such numbers only. The practice of referring
to the names of the accused/witnesses and documents descriptively in
the proceedings paper and judgments creates a lot of confusion. Whenever
there is need to refer to them by name their rank as Accused/Witness
must be shown in brackets.
E
7. Repetition of pleadings, evidence, and arguments in the
judgments and orders of the Trial Court, Appellate and Revisional Courts
be avoided. Repetition of facts, evidence, and contentions before lower
Courts make the judgments cumbersome, and takes away the precious
time of the Court unnecessarily. The Appellate/Revisional Court
judgment/order is the continuation of the lower court judgment and must F
ideally start with" in this appeal/revision, the impugned judgment is assailed
on thefollowing grounds" or "the points that arise for consideration in
this appeal/revision are". This does not of course, take away the. option/
jurisdiction of the Appellate/Revisional Courts to re-narrate facts and
contentions if they be inadequately or insufficiently narrated in the G
judgment. Mechanical re narration to be avoided at any rate.
8. In every case file, a judgment folder to be maintained, and the
first para in the appellate/revisional judgment to be numbered as the
next paragraph after the last para in the impugned judgment. This would
cater to a better culture of judgment writing saving precious court time.
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678 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2017] 4 S.C.R.
A 9. The healthy practice in some states of the Investigating Officer
obtaining and producing (or the wound certificate/ post mortem certificate
showing) the front and rear sketch of the human torso showing the injuries
listed in the medical documents specifically, may be uniformly insisted.
This would help the judges to have a clearer and surer understaading of
B the situs of the injuries.
10. Marking of contradictions -A healthy practice of marking the
contradictions/Omissions properly does not appear to exist in several
States. Ideally the relevant portions of case diary statement used for
contradicting a witness must be extracted fully in the deposition. If the
same is cumbersome at least the opening and closing words of the
C contradiction in the case diary statement must be referred tu in the
deposition and marked separately as a Prosecution/Defence exhibit.
11. The practice of omnibus marking ofS. 164 statement of witness
deserves to be deprecated. The relevant portion of such prior statements
ofliving persons used for contradiction or corroboration Vis. 1451157 of
D the Evidence Act deserves to be marked separately and specifically.
12. The practice of whole sale marking of confession st1tement
ofaccused persons for introduction of the relevant statement admissible
under S. 27 of Evidence Act deserves to be deprecated. Ideally the
admissible portion and that portion alone, must be extracted in the recovery
E memos (Mahazar or Panch - different nomenclature used in different
parts of the land) within inverted commas. Otherwise the relevant portion
alone written separately must be proved by the Investigating Officer.
Back door access to inadmissible evidence by marking th~ entire
confession statement in the attempt to prove the admissible portion under
F S. 27 of Evidence Act should be strictly avoided.
13. The Trial Courts must be mandatorily obliged to specify in the
Judgment the period of set off under Section 428 Cr.P.C specifying date
and not leave it to be resolved later by jail authorities or successor
presiding officers. The Judgements and the consequent warrant of
G committal must specify the period of set off clearly.
3. In the circumstances, we direct that notices be issued to the
Registrars General ofall the High Courts, and the Chief Secretaries/the
Administrators and the Advocates-General/Senior Standing Counsel of
all the States/Union Territories, so that general consensus can be arrived
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IN RE: TO ISSUE CERTAIN GUIDELINES REGARDING 6,79
INADEQUACIES AND DEFICIENCIES IN CRIMINAL TRIALS
at on the need to amend the relevant Rules of Practice/ Criminal Manuals A
to bring about uniform best practices across the country. This Court
may also consider issuance of directions under Article 142 of the
Constitution. They can be given the option to give suggestions also on
other areas of concern.
B
Divya Pandey Directions issued.
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