Dr. Justice V.S. Malimath Report First pages - Ministry of Home Affairs

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22.3 If we expect the Judges and Prosecutors to do high quality work, we
should expect them to have a profound knowledge of substantive criminal laws.
Secondly, to make Court procedures both fast (and cost-efficient), they have to
know the rules and procedures and how to enforce them as well as to use the Case
method (recommended by the Committee) efficiently. Further, they will need
communication and management skills and some degree of knowledge of non-legal
areas such as sociology and psychology. For those who are likely to deal with
economic laws, specialized knowledge of economics, finance and accounting and
for those specializing in environment cases, special knowledge of environmental
laws will be necessary. Above all this there is a need for attitude training to
facilitate their everyday work, to help handle critical situations and to avoid stress.
22.4 Although there is already a report on police training, the Committee
feels that the training needs of the police at the lowest level needs much
strengthening especially in terms of protection of human rights. It would be useful
to have a look at what are the best practices and promote them especially in
friendly/community policing, modern investigation techniques, accountability and
attitudinal changes especially towards the poor an vulnerable. The second aspect is
to have combined training for senior police officers and Prosecutors as well as
Judges. A system of jont programmes, professional exchanges and research needs
to be developed for the long-term.
22.5 There are several courses at the Institute of Criminology and Forensic
Science, the Bureau of Police Research and Development, the Indian Institute of
Public Administration and a few modules on criminal justice and are both ad hoc
and short-term and therefore, neither satisfy the training needs nor will it improve
the performance of Prosecutors and Judges. The training being recommended
here, will be in terms of improving trails in terms of speed and efficiency of trails
and the quality of judgements, including better sentencing and settlement among
other things.
22.6 The Committee’s recommendation to reform the Criminal Justice
System include:
i. the need for the Courts to focus on finding the truth;
ii. a strong victim orientation;
iii. use of forensic as well as modern methods of investigation;
iv. reclassification of crimes with a large number of offences to be
“settles”;
v. an emphasis on the accountability of all those in the System
including the judge, the prosecution as well as the defense;
vi. much enhanced managerial and technical skills in the personnel.
22.7 The training programme must comprise all these elements. This is a stupendous