Law and You >Procedural Laws > CrPC > Objectives, and Salient Features of CrPC

The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is mainly an adjective law of Procedure. The purpose of the code is to provide machinery for prosecution, trial, and punishment of offenders under substantive criminal law. i.e., the Indian Penal Code and other laws passed by the State from time to time. The substantive law defines the rights, duties, and liabilities of the persons. The rules of procedure as provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure are meant to regulate the procedure to be followed in every investigation, inquiry, and trial, for every offence under the IPC or any other law in the court. In this article, we shall discuss objectives, and salient features of CrPC.

Objectives of the Code:

• The Important objective of the Code of Criminal Procedure is to provide an opportunity to the accused person to get a fair trial in accordance with the principles of natural justice
• to ensure a fair trial where none of the rights of the accused are compromised nor are they unjustifiably favoured.
• to make an effort to prevent delay in investigation and trial to ensure fair justice.
• To ensure the attendance of any person concerned with the case, including an accused or a witness, through various measures, viz. summons, warrant, proclamation and attachment of property.
• To provide a detailed scheme for working of various functionaries of the state to help and assist the administration of Criminal Justice in India for the entire time period between when a crime has been committed until the time the sentence against the crime is passed and the case is closed i.e. investigation, inquiry, and trial. 

Features of CrPC:

The CrPC contains 484 Sections and XXXVII Chapters. The CrPC describes that all offences in the Indian Penal Code 1860 shall be investigated, inquired into, tried unless it is otherwise dealt. However, CrPC does not affect any special law, local law or any special jurisdiction or power or procedure provided in any other law. Some of the basic features of CrPC are discussed below. 

Organization of Criminal Courts:

• The CrPC provides a uniform set of criminal courts throughout the territory of India by conferring jurisdiction, powers, and functions.
• The CrPC mandates the separation of judiciary from the executive, which enables the state to work with independently and impartially without the interference of any other organs of the State.
• All Judicial Magistrates shall work under the control of the High Courts of the respective states.
• Judicial hierarchy is represented by the Chief Judicial Magistrate and First and Second Class Judicial Magistrates, District Magistrate and other subordinate magistrates continue to deal with problems relating to maintenance of law and order and the prevention of crime.
• All the Judicial Magistrates shall function under the control of the High Court. Their sentencing power has also been enhanced. The Court of Sessions would continue to be what it has been so far.
• All the important duties previously assigned to the District Magistrate under the old Code of 1898 have been entrusted to the Chief Judicial Magistrate.
• The CrPC abolished the appointing of honorary Magistrates and Justices of peace. Instead, a provision has been made for the appointment of retired or serving officers of Government as Special Magistrates with summary powers to try special categories of petty cases.
• The System of Presidency Magistrates has been extended to all the cities with a population of more than one million. These cities will be called metropolitan areas and the Judicial Magistrates in Metropolitan cities are named Metropolitan Magistrates.
• The jury system has been abolished.

Fair Trial and Rights of Accused Person:

• Under CrPC every person is entitled to fair trial and hearing by an independent and impartial Tribunal.
• The accused is presumed to be innocent until the charges are proved.
• The accused has the right to be represented by his counsel.
• The accused has a right to cross-examine the witnesses of the opposite party.
• In cases triable by the Sessions Court if the accused is poor and without any means of his own, he will be entitled to free legal aid. The State Governments are empowered to extend this facility to other categories of cases also.
• Some special provisions such as sections 313, 315, and 164(2), etc. have been made for protecting the interests of the accused.

Protection to the Accused Person:

• Special provisions have been made to protect the interest of the accused person. The Supreme Court also gave some important guidelines with respect to the rights of the accused person in D.K.Basu v. State of West Bengal, AIR 1997 SC 610.
• An arrested person has a right to be medically examined to help him in his defence or to prove that he was subjected to assault, etc. during custody.

Special Provision for the Protection of the Accused:

• Free legal aid provision is made if the accused person is poor and cannot afford the costs of the litigation.
• In petty cases the accused can even plead guilty by post and send the amount of fine specified in the summons to the court, therefore he need not appear before the court.
• Legal representatives of parties have been given right to compound the case with the permission of the Court after the death of the parties.

Trial Procedure:

• Procedure for trial of summary cases shall be the same as that for summons cases except where it is provided otherwise.
• It has been provided that the procedure for summary trial will be the same as that for summons cases and that summons will be issued in the first instance in all summons cases while warrant will be issued ordinarily in all warrant cases.
• Offences punishable with imprisonment up to two years will be tried as summons cases.
• Summons to witness can be served by post.
• The Court of Sessions also have been given power to exercise the revisional jurisdiction in addition to the High Courts.
• The powers of revision conferred on the superior courts cannot be exercised in interlocutory orders.
• An appeal by the state against the order of the acquittal can be filed only after obtaining the leave of the High Court. The State can file an appeal for enhancement of sentence.
• In case of adjournments, costs may be awarded against the party seeking adjournment including the prosecution.
• In case of examination of a witness on commission on the request of the prosecution, the Court may order payment of all expenses including the fee of the pleader in that regard to the defence by the prosecution.
• The Courts are empowered to punish blatant cases of perjury on the spot.
• The practice of seeking stay on the ground of intention to move for transfer of proceedings has been abolished.
• The committal proceedings in session’s cases have been abolished.
• The need for oral examination of formal witnesses has been dispensed with.
• The trial may be continued even in absence of the accused if he persistently disturbs the proceedings.
• The Court has power to record evidence by dictation to stenographers.
• It will not be necessary to read out the judgment in the Court, if a copy is given to the accused.
• The practice of hearing of the party heard cases to be continued by the successor in office in the Courts of Magistrate has been extended to the Courts of Sessions.
• The procedure for the appointment of public prosecutors and assistant public prosecutors have been systematized and qualifications have been prescribed for them.
• The withdrawal of criminal cases in which the Central Government is concerned can be done only with the consent of that Government.
• The provisions for payment of compensation to victims of crime or for vexatious prosecutions have been liberalized.

Duty of the Police:

• If the police officer refuses to record information about commission of the crime the aggrieved person does have a right to send the information by post to the superintendent of the police.
• It has been specified that no arrested person can be kept under detention by the police or more than twenty-four hours without being produced before a magistrate.
• In those cases where a complaint is filed by some person, which case has also been investigated by the police, provisions have been made to co-ordinate the two proceedings.
• The magistrate may authorize the detention of the accused person otherwise than in the custody of police, beyond the period of fifteen days if he is satisfied that adequate grounds exist for doing so, for a total period not exceeding ninety days relating to an offence punishable with death, life imprisonment or for a term of not less than ten years and sixty days in the case of investigation relating to any other offence.
• The period of detention in jail during remand shall be counted against the sentence of imprisonment ultimately awarded in the case.

Other Features:

• The recovery of fines imposed by Courts will be governed by the Revenue Recovery Act.
• The Code has prescribed a period of limitation in case of certain categories of offences.
• Bail provisions have been liberalized.
• A member of the Armed Forces of the Union cannot be arrested for any act done in the discharge of his official duties without the previous consent of the Central Government and no prosecution can be launched against such person. This immunity can be extended to the State Forces by the State Government.

Case Laws:

In Shakuntala Devi v. State of U.P., 2003 Cri LJ 687 (All) case, the Court observed that when civil remedy is available, a criminal case is not barred and each case has to be decided on the basis of its peculiar facts and circumstances to find out whether on the facts of the case a criminal offence is made out or not.

In Shivjee Singh v. Nagendra Tiwary, 2010 Cri LJ 3827 (SC) case, the Court held that if a violation of the procedural provision does not result in denial of fair hearing or causes prejudice to the parties, the same has to be treated as directory notwithstanding the use of the word ‘shall’.

In S. Rama Krishna v. Rami Reddy, 2008 Cri LJ 2625 (SC) case, the Court held that speedy trial is a fundamental right of an accused. The orders passed by the competent Court of law as also the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure must be construed having regard to the Constitutional scheme and the legal principles in mind.

Conclusion:

The CrPC contains 484 Sections and XXXVII Chapters. The CrPC describes that all offences in the Indian Penal Code 1860 shall be investigated, inquired into, tried unless it is otherwise dealt with. However, CrPC does not affect any special law, local law, or any special jurisdiction or power or procedure provided in any other law. The CrPC provides a uniform set of criminal courts throughout the territory of India by conferring jurisdiction, powers, and functions. Under CrPC every person is entitled to a fair trial and hearing by an independent and impartial Tribunal. The accused is presumed to be innocent until the charges are proved. The accused has the right to be represented by his counsel. Further, the accused has a right to cross-examine the witnesses of the opposite party. Special provisions have been made to protect the interest of the accused person. Free legal aid provision is made if the accused person is poor and cannot afford the costs of the litigation. In petty cases the accused can even plead guilty by post and send the amount of fine specified in the summons to the court, therefore he need not appear before the court. All Judicial Magistrates shall work under the control of the High Courts of the respective states. The procedure for trial of summary cases shall be the same as that for summons cases except where it is provided otherwise. The Courts of Sessions also have been given the power to exercise the revisory jurisdiction in addition to the High Courts. An appeal by the state against the order of the acquittal can be filed only after obtaining the leave of the High Court. In case of adjournments, costs may be awarded against the party seeking adjournment including the prosecution.

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