TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: Former High Court Judge, Justice Nelson Britto, has underlined the need for honesty for the successful working of the criminal justice system.
“Honesty has to come in the witnesses, in the police and amongst the judges, public prosecutors and the lawyers. You may carry out 100 amendments to the Cr PC and the IPC, but nothing will happen. India is known for too many laws, but hardly anybody implements them,” Justice Britto said, while speaking at the day-long seminar on “Criminal Justice system: Challenges and Priorities” organized by Goecho Fudar in association with Govind Ramnath Kare College of law, Margao.
Justice Britto observed, “International criminal Charles Sobraj, who is undergoing trial in Nepal in a murder case had said that anywhere in the world he would prefer to be tried by the Indian judiciary. Can you guess why he said that? I suppose because our system is very accused friendly. Correspondently, the system is victim unfriendly. So much so, it is often said that in relation to crimes against women that they are being victimized twice,” he said.
Posing a question whether the system has failed the people or the people have failed the system, Justice Britto said, “There is one challenge for the system to survive and keep in top form, the challenge is that we lack honesty.”
On hostile witnesses, he sought to know who initiates action against these and demanded to know whether the courts have turned powerless. “At the end of the day, an impression is created that you can tell any lies in the court and get away with it,” he added.
Saying there’s a lot of ground for improvement among Judges, public prosecutors and lawyers, Justice Britto said, “Not that all judges are very honest. I remember former Chief Justice Venkatramaiah saying that there are judges who allow themselves to be influenced by lawyers,” he added.
In his address, DGP Kishan Kumar said the society is in conflict over the criminal justice system. Referring to the behaviour and attitude of minor juveniles at the remand homes, he demanded to know whether jails conduct advanced study course in criminal behaviour. “I strongly believe that instead of shifting blames, all of us have to think how the components of the criminal justice system can be made compatible so that they work without friction. They need lubrication, repair and service to ensure that the three components of criminal justice system work in harmony,” he added.
President of Vidya Vikas Mandal, Ramnath Kare, Goecho Fudar President Jagdish Prabhudessai and Kare College Principal A S Nadkarni also spoke.
