Parliament at long last has redressed the plight of undertrial prisoners rotting in jails for years. The Criminal Procedure Code has been amended, which now enables undertrial prisoners, except those charged with offences punishable by death, to be released on personal bonds if they have served more than half the sentence for the crime for which they are being tried. This however provides only partial relief. The main causes for delays in trial are non-attendance of prosecutors, failure to ensure presence of witnesses, transfer of the judge in the midst of a trial and his/her unplanned absence, and also the conduct of the accused and their lawyers. An effective solution lies in ensuring accountability of all actors in the criminal justice system for their performance and coordinated functioning.

A vexed problem is how does one compensate a person who has been acquitted not on account of technicalities but on a positive finding of innocence. A slice of the person’s life has been cut off for no fault of his. In case of an earning member the loss caused to the family can be enormous. It is necessary to rectify this lacuna by prescribing definite criteria for the quantum of compensation to be awarded and thus avoid judicial ad-hocism. A Presidential Ordinance recently issued in Pakistan provides that a woman accused of certain offences which were hitherto not bailable shall nonetheless be released on bail as if the offence is bailable. It further provides that a woman shall be released on bail if she has been detained for a continuous period of six months and whose trial for such offence has not been concluded, unless the delay has been caused by the accused. This salutary provision is worth emulating. India and Pakistan have similar problems in the administration of criminal justice and can profitably learn from one another.

... contd.