Maharashtra Shakti law: Experts warn that amendments could delay justice

The legal experts are also concerned that the amendments made in Maharashtra must synchronise with changes made to relevant criminal laws in other states for uniform applicability. Representation pic

From perjury to compensation for wrongful arrest - are few suggestions made by lawyers/women's groups to the state assembly's public notice dated January 2, for the proposed Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law. But senior legal brains have a word of caution, saying such amendments should not be done with political intent, or affect pendency of other cases, as they might adversely impact the judicial process and delay the justice delivery system further.

Rohini Salian, advocate

The legal experts were referring to the 29 amendments that were signed by the state government in 2018, and sent to the assembly for approval. They also said that such amendments must synchronise with changes made to relevant criminal laws in other states for uniform applicability.

In response to the public notice about the proposed law, the state government received 46 suggestions from women's and lawyers' groups across Mumbai, and these have been put before the state-appointed committee. "The committee will meet on January 30 at Aurangabad, and lawyers/women group can submit any suggestions to it," said a Mantralaya official.

Dinesh Tiwari, senior criminal lawyer

Advocate Rajeshwar Panchal, seeks amendment in sections 250 (Compensation for accusation without reasonable cause) and 195 (Prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants, for offences against public justice and for offences relating to documents given in evidence) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He explained, "Section 250 of CrPC empowers only the court of the Magistrate to grant compensation to the accused after the trial and upon his satisfaction that the accused was wrongly prosecuted or falsely implicated. However, this power has a rider. A magistrate can't exceed his pecuniary limit in imposing fine. Thus, this provision needs to be amended."

Panchal also said there is a need to suitably amend section 195 of CrPC to enable a victim of false prosecution or false evidence, etc. legally called offence of perjury, to have access to justice against the one who commits it. This is needed because in the existing mechanism, it is only the court before whom perjury has been proved, which can lodge a complaint against its perpetrator."

‘Rarely make amendments'
Advocate Rohini Salian, former Chief Public Prosecutor, who was part of the state-appointed committee to strength the Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Maharashtra Amendment Act 2020), said, "I am of the view that amendments to acts, whether they fall in the union, state or concurrent list, should be rarely done, and not with the intent of getting political mileage. Such amendments need to be done after considering pros and cons post discussion with all the stakeholders - judiciary, legislative, police - and experts. An amendment should be proposed, if it can easily be adapted by other states."

She cited an example of an earlier amendment to IPC, CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act, in the initial days of India's transformation from non-digital to digital, introducing the words ‘electronic document' in the definition of word documents in criminal acts. The amendment also gave more power to the Information Technology Act to take action against cyber offenders and other criminals.

Senior criminal lawyer Dinesh Tiwari said, "Amendment after amendment in acts which have been prevailing since British era without required infrastructure and additional helping hands, only derail the criminal justice process and delay justice to the common man. Instead of cosmetic changes in criminal laws, the real problem must be resolved by setting up techno-judicial infrastructure across the state."

"After 73 years of Independence, Mumbai has witnessed an increase in civil/criminal litigations, but has only one additional Sessions Court at Dindoshi. More courts and more judges are needed to expedite cases. With amendments to rape laws, in order to fast track sexual assault cases and for the verdict to be passed within a year, courts will focus on the same. But pendency of other cases should not be ignored," said Tiwari.