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

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RECOMMENDATIONS _
1. NEED FOR REFORMS
It is the duty of the State to protect fundamental rights of the citizens as well as
the right to property. The State has constituted the Criminal Justice System to
protect the rights of the innocent and punish the guilty. The system devised
more than a century back, has become ineffective; a large number of guilty go
unpunished in a large number of cases; the system takes years to bring the
guilty to justice; and has ceased to deter criminals. Crime is increasing rapidly
everyday and types of crimes are proliferating. The citizens live in constant
fear. It is therefore that the Govt. of India, Ministry of Home Affairs
constituted the Committee on reforms of Criminal Justice System to make a
comprehensive examination of all the functionaries of the Criminal Justice
System, the fundamental principles and the relevant laws. The Committee,
having given its utmost consideration to the grave problems facing the country,
has made its recommendations in its final report, the salient features of which
are given below:-
2. ADVERSARIAL SYSTEM
The Committee has given its anxious consideration to the question as to
whether this system is satisfactory or whether we should consider
recommending any other system. The Committee examined in particular the
Inquisitorial System followed in France, Germany and other
Continental countries. The Inquisitorial System is certainly efficient in the
sense that the investigation is supervised by the Judicial Magistrate
which results in a high rate of conviction. The Committee on balance
felt that, a fair trial and in particular, fairness to the accused, are better
protected in the adversarial system. However, the Committee felt that
some of the good features of the Inquisitorial system can be adopted to
strengthen the Adversarial System and to make it more effective. This includes
the duty of the Court to search for truth, to assign a pro-active role to
the Judges, to give directions to the investigating officers and prosecution
agencies in the matter of investigation and leading evidence with the object of