Discussing ways to reap benefits of the three new criminal laws, CBI Director Praveen Sood on Wednesday batted for the provision of plea bargaining, asking, “why don’t we use these provisions aggressively?”
Speaking at the valedictory ceremony of the 50th All India Police Science Congress (AIPSC) at Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) in Gandhinagar, Sood said, “In India, the provision of plea bargaining was brought in in 2006 as CrPC 265(b). It said that in cases where punishment is less than seven years and the crimes are not against women, children or senior citizens, the court can be lenient in sentencing if the accused was to plead guilty. Against crores of cases between 2006 and 2023, the statistics say just 18,000 cases or 0.1% were decided through plea bargaining. Why don’t we use this (provision)?”
Plea bargaining is an exercise to arrive at an agreement in which the accused agrees to plead guilty, or not to contest the charges, while the prosecution concedes leniency in punishment in exchange to the plea.
Explaining how this section was improved in the new law, Sood said, “This section has become even more attractive in section 290 of the BNSS (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita). In cases with less punishment, the punishment could be halved with plea bargains and where there is no minimum punishment prescribed, it (the duration) could be made one-third. In BNSS, we have gone a step forward. For first-time offenders, the punishment has come down from half to one-fourth and where there is no prescription, it has been brought down from one-third to one-sixth, if they plead guilty.”
The CBI director further said, “Plea bargaining is used rampantly in all the western countries. We have not tried to use this tool to dispose of the cases. Many of the accused would have undergone that much punishment before getting bail. But if they were to plead guilty, they would get rid of that judicial process without spending more money in a country where the process is the real punishment…Why don’t we use these provisions aggressively?”
On wider implementation of the plea bargain section, Sood said, “In CBI, we have tried to use these provisions and with a fair amount of success. All over the country where we have millions of pending cases, why don’t we use these provisions and try to lighten the judicial system? If we can reduce the load on the judicial system, we will get to see the fruits of the new laws in two to three years.”
Sood further said, “I saw what the Home Minister (Amit Shah) said yesterday (Tuesday). If there are many people in jail for their first offence because they can’t afford a good lawyer and if they are bailed automatically using the one-third punishment rule, don’t they all also qualify to be cleared using plea bargain, considering it prescribes punishment at one-sixth the sentence? If they have already served more time in jail, and they meet all the conditions, they can all avoid the pain of the judicial process.”
Speaking about the three new criminal laws, he said, “What is the purpose of these new laws? It is to give justice to the victims… I am not accusing anyone but this is a fact that justice in our country is delayed and cases are decided after 20 and 30 years as well. So, when will we get the fruit of these new laws? The trials going on today are those which began 10-15 years ago. So are we going to get the benefit of BNSS after 10-15 years?” Speaking in favour of plea bargain, Sood said, “In many cases, the accused are dead, half of the witnesses are dead. Documents cannot be traced, party is not found when summons are served. Will a person keep sitting at the same address for 20 years? Old cases keep getting disposed of due to lack of evidence, witnesses or memory. Even if the charge is proved, courts say the accused is 80 years old, what is the point of punishing him? Either they are acquitted or time spent in jail is considered as a sentence served. If this continues, when will we get the benefits (of the new laws)?”
