A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao passed the order when senior counsel R Basant, appearing for one of the parties in the appeal, referred to "certain common inadequacies and deficiencies in the course of trials adopted by the trial courts while disposing of criminal cases".
In a step aimed at improving the criminal justice system, the Supreme Court today asked all the states and high courts to come up with suggestions to arrive at a general consensus on the need to amend criminal manuals to bring about "uniform best practices" across the country.
The apex court decided to take up the matter on its own while hearing a criminal appeal related to a case in Kerala.
A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao passed the order when senior counsel R Basant, appearing for one of the parties in the appeal, referred to "certain common inadequacies and deficiencies in the course of trials adopted by the trial courts while disposing of criminal cases".
"In the circumstances, we direct that notices be issued to the registrars general of all the high courts and the chief secretaries/the administrators and the advocates general/ senior standing counsel of all the states/Union territories, so that general consensus can be arrived at on the need to amend the relevant rules of practice/criminal manuals to bring about uniform best practices across the country," the bench said.
"This court may also consider issuance of directions under Article 142 of the Constitution. They can be given the option to give suggestions also on other areas of concern," it said.
It observed that particularly, it was pointed out by the counsel that though there were beneficial provisions in the rules of some of the high courts which ensure that documents like list of witnesses and list of exhibits referred to, were annexed to the judgment and order of the trial court, "these features do not exist in rules of some other high courts".
The apex court noted that the senior counsel has suggested that in the interest of better administration of criminal justice, the court "may consider issue of certain general guidelines to be followed across the board by all criminal courts in the country". (More)
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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