NHRC expresses “serious concern” over slow justice delivery, overburdened courts

New Delhi, Aug 18 (UNI) Core group of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) expressed serious concerns over the slow pace of reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure speedy justice during a meeting held on Wednesday.
The group felt inadvertent delays happening in the disposal of criminal cases resulting in human rights violations of both the under-trials and convicted prisoners and others related to such cases.
Justice MM Kumar, who chaired the meeting, said that despite many efforts, including the directions from the Supreme Court (SC) seeking police reforms, the ground reality hasn’t changed much.
“Effective policing is crucial for speedy trials in the criminal justice system. Crowding of complaints at every police station can be reduced if certain offences in IPC are replaced with special laws and fast track courts are created to clear the pendency,” he observed.
Justice AK Mishra, Chairperson, NHRC, said that delay in trials and the implementation of courts’ conviction orders take years which is a matter of rights violation. “The digitization of documents will help in speedy investigation and trials,” he added to the suggestions pooled for reforms in the criminal justice system.
Earlier, Dr DM Mulay, Member, NHRC had said that the poor conviction rate is a result of the lack of required police and administrative reforms. He said that there is also a shortage of judges.
Santosh Mehra, DG for Investigation, NHRC said that the shortage of police personnel at various police stations in proportion to the population needs to be considered on priority in the interest of ensuring timely justice to the people.
As per an estimate, around 4.4 crore cases are pending across the Supreme Court, High Courts and District Courts, while 70 lakh more cases have been added since March 2020, informed Bimbadhar Pradhan, Secretary-General, NHRC, adding that focus needs to be tilted more towards the victim’s rights and smart policing to reform the criminal justice system.
UNI/ASH JW2139