After serving a life sentence for 20 years in jail over rape charges, a man was pronounced innocent by the Allahabad High Court in January this year. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape under the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Tiwari was arrested on September 16, 2000, and booked for rape and atrocities under the SC/ST Act. After three years of trial, a Lalitpur court sentenced him to 10-year rigorous imprisonment followed by his conviction under the SC/ST Act. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
His appeal before the Allahabad High Court was pending for 16 years. The reasons behind that were missing documents or documents in the wrong format for listing the case. Moreover, Vishnu’s lawyer had no interest in pursuing the case. So, the appeal stayed defective.
Shweta Singh Rana, a legal aid lawyer, was given the case in 2019, at the request of the jail authorities to the High Court. The High Court pointed out in its verdict that the State government did not consider converting his life sentence after 14 years.
A sincere lawyer and aware family members are essential to secure justice. However, these facilities have become luxuries that only prisoners with good economic conditions have access to.
An effective justice system should be strong enough to ensure justice for everyone, irrespective of the economic condition of an individual. There is an absence of an integrated digital platform for the criminal justice system. Moreover, present systems are designed poorly.
The Digitisation has transformed the delivery of public services like passports. Whereas, the criminal justice system is still functioning with old procedures and paper-based processes. The eCourts project has made significant progress in digitising the works of courts. Still, large gaps are present in the system.
The criminal cases involve coordination and communication between various institutions such as the police, prosecutors, legal services authorities, and forensic labs. These interactions are not smooth.
Pitching for digitisation of the entire justice system in India to be future ready to bring in accuracy and speed in pronouncement of judgements
It allows the interaction between various institutions through a digital platform. This system normalizes the format and content of data across all the systems. Thereby, it helps in smooth communication and avoiding duplication of data.
This system will notify the registry about the defects in a particular appeal, un-rectified for an extended period. The system would also inform the accused that his lawyer was not pursuing his case carefully.
The legal service authority would be informed of the case and the lawyer could be replaced. The system should monitor the quality of representation of the lawyer.
After 14 years of imprisonment, the system would have notified the State government that the prisoner was eligible for re-sentencing of his sentence.