Former Director General of Police C. Anjaneya Reddy has said that steps should be taken to ensure that all criminal cases are disposed of in one year and all civil cases in two years by taking up reforms like constituting Judicial Accountability Commission and National Judicial Appointments Commission.
Delivering the fifth D.Ch. Tirupathi Raju Memorial Lecture, organised by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and the Visakhapatnam Public Library on Friday, on ‘Criminal justice on trial.’ he spoke on the inordinate delay in the disposal of cases resulting in growing clamour for instant justice, the sluggish functioning of courts with 33 million cases pending and 40 % of posts in high courts being vacant.
Underlining the importance of accountability, he recalled the observation of Justice V. S. Malimath Committee on Criminal Justice System that judicial credibility was enhanced when it was transparent and accountable.
On the Supreme Court holding NJAA Act unconstitutional, he quoted Justice (rtd) J. Chalameswar who in his dissenting note commented that the primacy of judiciary in the appointment of judges was empirically flawed.
Reforms in law
Making out a case for changing outdated procedures, Mr. Anjaneya Reddy suggested that reforms, including decriminalising offences, particularly those relating to marital disputes, civil rights, making more and more simple offences compoundable, defining more ‘summary trail’ offences and making them punishable with substantial fine and introducing ‘plea-bargaining.’
To cut down delays in investigation, as suggested by various commissions, the order-keeping and crime investigation wings should be separated making the investigation wing independent or even autonomous.
On the ‘Disha’ case in Hyderabad, he said use of extralegal means was most unfortunate and would undermine the confidence of people in criminal justice system. The right way would be to amend the laws and make the system more effective. He said the Andhra Pradesh government bringing about the necessary amendments to the law and fixing investigation and trial of cases affecting women in a timeframe was a mature reaction.
He recalled his association with Tirupathi Raju, who headed several important organisations in Visakhapatnam besides working as secretary of the port trust.
CPS president A. Prasanna Kumar said the centre, acting as a bridge between various sections of people and the government, would organise a series of talks in its silver jubilee year. He described Tirupathi Raju as a good samaritan who would gladly associate himself with any public cause.
D.S. Varma, secretary of the Public Library and son of Tirupathi Raju, handed over a cheque for ₹1 lakh to the library in memory of his father to president S. Vijay Kumar.
