A criminal lawyer is a kind of lawyer who protects a accused of a criminal offense in a trial. There are various branches of laws, which are regulating the conduct of human beings. Criminal law is a body of rules and statutes that define conduct prohibited by the state because it threatens and harms public safety and welfare and that establishes punishment to be imposing for the commission of such acts. Criminal law differs from civil law, whose emphasis is more on dispute resolution than punishment.
The major chunk of criminal laws that exist today still relies on the British-era laws. According to the Charter Act, 1833, India’s first law commission in 1834 recommended the drafting of the Indian Penal Code. Lord Macaulay, who was the chairman of that law commission, spearheaded its drafting. This is basically a comprehensive enactment describing all major crimes in existence at that time. IPC has seen several amendments since it first came into existence. The Draft Penal Code, which was drafted and submitted to the Governor-General in 1837, was revised and enacted into law in 1860 by the Indian Legislature. The Indian Penal Code based on English principles wholly superseded the Mohammedan criminal law. A general Code of Criminal Procedure followed in 1861 and the process of superseding native by European law, so far as criminal justice is concerned, was completed by the enactment of the Evidence Act of 1872. The Government of India Act, 1935 changed the structure of the Indian Government from unitary to that of the federal type. It laid the foundation for a federal framework in India. A federal Constitution involves the distribution of powers between the center and the constituent units.
Background of the Criminal Justice System in India
The Criminal Justice System in India is an age-old system primarily based upon the Penal legal system that was established by the British Rule in India.
The system has still not undergone any substantial changes even after 70 years of Independence. The biggest example could be Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that defines sedition and provides for its punishment.
The entire Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) was amended in 1973.
The appointment of the Vohra Committee was the very first attempt towards reforming the Criminal Justice System in India. Vohra Committee report (1993) made an observation on the criminalization of politics and of the nexus among criminals, politicians, and bureaucrats in India.
In 2000, the government formed a panel headed by Justice V.S. Malimath, the former Chief Justice of Kerala and Karnataka, to suggest reform in the century-old criminal justice system.
The Malimath Committee submitted its report in 2003 with 158 recommendations but these were never implemented.
The Committee felt that the existing system “weighed in favor of the accused and did not adequately focus on justice to the victims of crime.”
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