Plea Bargaining

Plea Bargaining

Subject: Polity

Section: Judiciary

Prisons’/‘persons detained therein’ is a “State List” subject under Entry 4 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. Administration and management of prisons and prisoners is the responsibility of respective  State Governments.

 However, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also been supplementing the efforts of the State Governments in this regard. The initiatives taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs to address the issue of undertrial prisoners are as follows:

(i) The Government of India inserted Section 436A in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which provides for release of an under-trial prisoner on bail on undergoing detention for a period extending up to one half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for an offence under any law.

(ii) The concept of plea bargaining has been introduced by inserting a “Chapter XXIA” on “Plea Bargaining” (Sections 265A to 265L) in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which enables pre-trial negotiation between the defendant and the prosecution.

(iii) E-prisons Software, which is a Prison Management Application integrated with Interoperable Criminal Justice System provides facility to State Jail authorities to access the data of inmates in a quick and efficient manner and helps them in identifying the inmates whose cases are due for consideration by the Under Trial Review Committee, etc.

(iv) The Model Prison Manual 2016 circulated to all States/ Union Territories has specific chapters on “Legal Aid” and “Undertrial Prisoners”, etc, which provide detailed guidelines on the facilities which may be provided to undertrial inmates, namely legal defence, interview with lawyers, application to Courts for legal aid at Government cost etc.

The State Legal Services Authorities have established Legal Service Clinics in jails, which provide free legal assistance to persons in need. These Legal Service Clinics are managed by Empanelled Legal Services Advocates and trained Para-Legal Volunteers. These clinics have been established to ensure that no prisoner remains unrepresented and legal aid and advice is provided to them. National Legal Services Authority holds awareness generation camps in jails to generate awareness about availability of free legal aid, plea bargaining, Lok Adalats and legal rights of inmates, including their right to bail, etc.

The National Legal Services Authority had prepared a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Under-Trial Review Committees, which has been circulated by MHA to all States/Union Territories for making best use of the same and provide relief to prisoners.