Abstract
Plea bargaining was introduced into the Indian criminal justice system with the objective of providing relief to both accused and victims from lengthy trial processes while reducing the backlog of cases in courts. This paper critically analyzes the implementation and effectiveness of plea bargaining in India, examining its historical evolution, procedural aspects under the Criminal Procedure Code, and reasons for its limited success. Through comparative analysis with plea bargaining models in England and Canada, and by contrasting it with the more successful mechanism of compounding of offences, this research identifies structural, ideological, and practical challenges that have hindered plea bargaining’s effectiveness in India. The study concludes with recommendations for reform to make plea bargaining a more viable alternative dispute resolution mechanism within India’s criminal justice system.
Keywords: plea bargaining, criminal procedure, India, compounding of offences, comparative analysis, criminal justice reform.
INTRODUCTION
When a case is decided by the court, the objective is always to meet the ends of justice. But as the jurisprudence of justice suggests that being highly subjective, it is certainly hard to meet the ends of justice in every scenario. Where once the process of the trial is a means to achieve the end, now that process is proving to be cumbersome and problematic. Plea bargaining as a concept has been introduced in the Indian criminal justice system with the objective of giving a relief to both the accused and the victim from the lengthy and time taking process of trial. It is in essence a method to reaching to a conclusion using a short-cut.
To give a formal definition to this term, it can be defined as the defendant’s agreement to plead guilty to a criminal case with a reasonable expectation of receiving some considerations from the state[1] Now whether these considerations are justified in giving justice to both the accused and the victim is a question that is left to be discussed. But in this research paper the focus is on understanding the reasons for the failure of this concept in India.
The first chapter of the paper states the judicial trends that that kept on changing during the passage of time and explains the procedure and type of plea bargaining. In the second chapter first it is established with the help of facts that plea bargaining is a failure in India, then the reasons for the same has been provided and then in the end it has been explained why compounding of offence is a success and plea bargaining is a failure in India. The last chapter compares the model of plea bargaining in India with that of in England and Canada.
[1]Alschuler A.W, Plea Bargaining and Its History, 1 Colum. L. Rev. 3 (1979).