Dowry harassment, rioting, use of obscene words made compoundable offences in M.P.

Dowry harassment, rioting, use of obscene words made compoundable offences in M.P.

Subject :Polity 

Context:

Former President Ram Nath Kovind on the advice of the Union Home Ministry in June assented to a 2019 legislation passed by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly that makes the criminal offences of dowry harassment, rioting and use of obscene words in the State compoundable offences.

Concept :

• In a compoundable offence, parties involved can effect a compromise while the case is under trial in the court.
• The Malimath Committee constituted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2000 also favoured making Section 498A of IPC (dowry harassment) a bailable and compoundable offence.
• The M.P Bill proposed amendments to several sections of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and The Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
• It further said that the Madhya Pradesh Amendment Act of 1999 made Sections 147 IPC, (rioting) 294 IPC (obscene songs or words in a public place) and 506 IPC (criminal intimidation) compoundable but in 2009, the Union government amended the CrPC which again led to such offences becoming non-compoundable, leading to a backlog of cases in the court.
• Both IPC and CrPC come under the concurrent list which allows the State governments to amend them.
• The Bill states that certain provisions of CrPC, 1973 mandates physical presence of an accused (undertrial prisoner) or his pleader for recording evidence or other proceedings. It adds that due to shortage of police personnel, many times the accused are not produced before the court for scheduled hearings. Consequently, the case gets adjourned. Due to the advancement of information technology, it is desirable that the deposition of witnesses and examination of accused and other proceedings be taken optionally through the audio-video electronic means, instead of mandatory provision of their physical presence in court.

Malimath Committee Report

Malimath Committee (2000) on reforms in the Criminal Justice System of India (CJS) submitted its report in 2003. It suggested 158 changes in the CJSI but the recommendations weren’t implemented.

The Committee had opined that the existing system “weighed in favour of the accused and did not adequately focus on justice to the victims of crime.”

Recommendations

• Rights of the Accused: The Committee suggested that a Schedule to the Code be brought out in all regional languages so that the accused knows his/her rights, as well as how to enforce them and whom to approach when there is a denial of those rights.
• Police Investigation: The Committee suggested hiving off the investigation wing from Law and Order.
• Court and Judges: The report pointed out the judge-population ratio in India is 10.5 per million population as against 50 judges per million population in many parts of the world. The ratio is 19.66 per million people as of 2017.
  • It suggested the increase in strength of judges and courts.
• Witness Protection: It suggested separate witness protection law so that safety and security of witness can be ensured and they can be treated with dignity.
• Vacations of Court: It recommended reducing the vacations of court on account of long pendency of cases.