Go for plea bargain in petty crime cases

The government has time and again spent millions of rupees in order to strengthen the judicial infrastructure. It has recruited judges, staff, and established more courts and Lok Adalats.

However, it has still failed to tackle the problem of backlog of cases in the state, despite a law introduced in 2005.

The Union government, with an aim to bring down the backlog of cases, has added two sections in article 21 (a) in the Criminal Procedure Code for plea bargaining of the cases which has maximum punishment of up to seven years.

It means petty cases like a scuffle, misappropriation of accounts, forgery, defamation, illegal threat, rash driving, food adulteration and other offences can be solved with mutual consent of both the parties.

Those crimes, which have a quantum of punishment of up to seven years, are included in the sections of plea bargaining.

But crime against women, children and the nation are barred from this newly added law.

According to official figures received through RTI, during 2006 to 2010, only 22 cases have been reported and solved in the state that too in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate in Ahmedabad. Courts in most of the other cities including Gandhinagar, Vadodara and Rajkot have never registered a case for plea bargaining.

The state judiciary is also bearing the heavy load of around 21.50 lakh cases awaiting trial. There are mediation central, arbitration, Lok Adalats, evening court, fast track courts, established by spending crores of rupees to expedite justice. However, the litigants are not aware about the simple system that can spare them legal nightmares.

An NGO though, has started a drive to spread awareness among litigants, lawyers and police about plea bargaining.

"We have released a book giving information about plea bargaining and are distributing it among people who are interested including prisoners," said advocate Rajendra Shukla, of Shree Yogkshem Foundation of Human Dignity.

 "It helps in easing the load of cases and gives peace of mind to the litigants," he said adding, "We will also display leaflets and posters in the courts, police station and public places."