On Tuesday, during the suo-moto proceedings of the matter in concern to the inefficiencies in the Criminal Trial System, the Supreme Court sought the response of all High Courts on the implementation of Draft Rules of Criminal Practice drafted by the Amici Curiae.

In one suggestion coming from Senior Advocate Luthra, one of the amici curiae appointed by the court in the suo moto matter, High Courts have been suggested to adopt the draft criminal rules by adopting them in the administrative side. He stated that the Rules stresses on synchronization of the system all over India so that there is a rationalization of processes.

The bench comprising of CJI SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao has further been informed that the draft rules were framed after serving notice to all High Courts and that they did consider views of High Courts which responded in return. 

The Bench at this juncture pointed that in the interest of justice, it is neccessary for the Court to sought the response of High Courts to the same before issuing any such directions.

It sated:

"Amicus Curiae Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra states that draft rules have been prepared after notice to HC and after hearing those HCs which responded. Nevertheless, in the interests of justice, we should hear the High Courts before taking decision on framing rules."

In March 2017, Senior Advocate R. Basant offered suggestions on the issue of "Inadequacies and Inefficiencies in the Criminal Trial" following which the Top Court took suo-moto congnizance of the matter.

In a major highlight, Basant mentioned that though there were beneficial provisions in the Rules of some High Courts which ensured that certain documents, such as list of witnesses and the list of exhibit/material objects referred to, were annexed to the judgement and the order itself of the trial court, these features didn't exist in the Rules of some other High Courts.

He thus suggested:

"In the interest of better administration of criminal justice and to usher in a certain amount of uniformity, and acceptance of best practices prevailing over various parts of India, the Supreme Court may consider the issue of certain general guidelines to be followed across the board by all Criminal Courts in the country."

Considering the suggestion, the Supreme Court issued Notice to the Registrar-General of all 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 could be reached at on the need to amend the relevant Rules of Practice/ Criminal Manuals to bring about uniform best practices across the country.

Senior Advocates Sidharth Luthra and R. Basant were then appointed as amicus curiae in the matter.

Following this, in March 2020, pursuant to the directions issued by the Supreme Court, the amici submitted a Report outlining the Draft Rules of Criminal Practice, 2020.

The Draft Rules were prepared after taking into consideration, responses from 15 States/Union Territories and 21 High Courts in order to recognize the diverse practices prevalent in various States and High Courts and to ensure that the same was compliant with the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The next hearing of the matter will be after four weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

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