Aatmja Kumari(Intern Journalist): The Supreme Court on Tuesday, during the automatic cognizance proceedings related to inadequacies and inefficiencies in the criminal trial system, sought response from all the High Courts on the implementation of the Draft of Criminal Practice prepared by Amix Curiae. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, one of the court-appointed amicus curiae in the automatic cognizance case, suggested that the High Courts should adopt draft criminal rules on the administrative side.
“We have tried a contemporary system across India to rationalize the processes,” Luthra told the bench that the draft rules were drafted after giving notice to all the High Courts and responded after hearing their responses. However, the Supreme Court, in the interest of justice, sought to hear the response of the High Courts before issuing any such instructions.
“Amix Currie Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra said that draft rules have been prepared after notice to the High Court and hearing their reply. Nevertheless, in the interest of justice, we should hear the High Courts before deciding the rules, “CJI SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao said in the order. The matter will be considered after four weeks.
In March 2017, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the issue of “inadequacy and inefficiency in criminal trials” based on the suggestions of senior advocate R Basant. It was highlighted by Basant that although there are beneficial provisions in the rules of some High Courts, which ensure that certain documents, such as the list of witnesses and the list of referenced / fact items, are appended to the decision and order of the trial court Were, these characteristics are not present in the rules of some other High Courts.
He suggested that, in the interest of better administration of criminal justice and introduction of a certain amount of uniformity, and for the acceptance of best practices prevalent in different parts of India, the Supreme Court for use by all criminal courts in the country Might consider the issue of some general guidelines. After considering this, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Registrar-General of all High Courts and the Chief Secretaries / Administrators and Advocates / Senior Permanent Lawyers of all the States / Union Territories to bring uniform best practices across the country. The need to amend the relevant rules / criminal rules may be agreed upon in a general manner.
Senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and R Basant were then appointed as Amics Curiae in the case.
In March 2020, according to instructions issued by the Supreme Court, Amix Currie submitted a report outlining the draft rules of Criminal Practice, 2020. The draft rules were formulated after receiving feedback from 15 states/union territories and 21 high courts. Identified the diverse practices prevalent in various states and high courts and ensured that these conform to the Code of Criminal Procedure.
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