{"id":195411,"date":"2022-07-13T20:10:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T14:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=195411"},"modified":"2022-07-13T20:10:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T14:40:20","slug":"bails-in-our-courts-scs-idea-on-new-bail-law-must-be-taken-up-by-goi-but-judicial-officers-need-reforming-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/bails-in-our-courts-scs-idea-on-new-bail-law-must-be-taken-up-by-goi-but-judicial-officers-need-reforming-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Bail\u2019s in our courts: SC\u2019s idea on new bail law must be taken up by GoI. But judicial officers need reforming too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cBail\u2019s in our courts: SC\u2019s idea on new bail law must be taken up by GoI. But judicial officers need reforming too<\/strong>\u201d published in The Times of India<\/strong> on 12th Jul 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS2 – Judiciary<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Criminal justice system reform and related issues<\/p>\n

Context<\/strong>: SC recently took note of CrPC\u2019s colonial biases that continue till date and issued directions.<\/p>\n

GoI must follow through on the Supreme Court\u2019s suggestion that India needs a comprehensive bail legislation, on the lines of the UK Bail Act.<\/p>\n

What is the inequity that SC mentioned?<\/h5>\n

Police is quick to arrest citizens, and this puts poor and\/or poorly educated citizens at a huge disadvantage as they are unable to take advantage of the legal system, unlike those with education and affluence and\/or influence.<\/p>\n

Around 70% of the prison population are undertrials, most of them poor and therefore unable to secure monetary bail.<\/p>\n

What are the issues pointed by the SC?<\/h5>\n

Currently, provisions related to arrest and interrogation, issue of warrants and summons, execution of bonds and sureties, powers of police and courts, are dispersed across CrPC<\/strong> and various binding SC guidelines.<\/p>\n

A law collating these in one place can check arbitrariness. But a problem, which SC notes too, is the attitude of judicial officers.<\/p>\n

SC wondered whether the low rate of conviction tends to make judges adopt a negative attitude towards bail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, bail applications are kept pending for months. Unnecessary arrest coupled with no bail<\/strong> is a twofold blow.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Inaction on bail<\/strong> happens in high courts too. Appeals by the convicted are pending for decades in some HCs.<\/p>\n

What are the directions given by the SC?<\/h5>\n

Instead of a punitive approach to bail, SC has now directed that bail applications should be disposed of within two weeks<\/strong> in the normal course.<\/p>\n

SC has reiterated that arrest is a draconian measure<\/strong> to be used sparingly, otherwise the \u201cimpression that it is a police state\u201d will gain ground, which would be a disturbing description of a democracy.<\/p>\n

Way forward<\/h5>\n

SC\u2019s scepticism over the compliance with its 2014 Arnesh Kumar judgment<\/strong><\/em> reveals how well-intentioned verdicts are being subverted.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> The judgment had directed cops to diligently record specific reasons necessitating arrest, and magistrates to grant bail if the reasons don\u2019t make a persuasive case.<\/p>\n

Disciplinary action against errant officers \u2013 in police, judiciary or executive \u2013 may produce beneficial changes. But quick bail is a good corrective against unnecessary arrests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post is based on the article \u201cBail\u2019s in our courts: SC\u2019s idea on new bail law must be taken up by GoI. But judicial officers need reforming too\u201d published in The Times of India on 12th Jul 22. Syllabus: GS2 – Judiciary Relevance: Criminal justice system reform and related issues Context: SC recently… Continue reading Bail\u2019s in our courts: SC\u2019s idea on new bail law must be taken up by GoI. But judicial officers need reforming too<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10496],"class_list":["post-195411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700806528,"cached_date":1704861947},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}