Supreme Court Issues Guidelines, Revamps Rules Of Practice For Criminal Trials In India

The Apex Court has taken suo motu cognizance of certain common inadequacies and deficiencies in the course of trial adopted by the trial court while disposing of criminal cases. The Supreme Court observed that though there are beneficial provisions in the Rules of some of the High Courts which ensure that certain documents such as the list of witnesses, list of exhibits, etc. are annexed to the judgments and order of the trial court, such features do not exist in Rules of the some other High Courts.

In view thereof, the bench comprising of Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde and Hon'ble Mr. Justice L. Nageswara Rao, issued notices to the Registrar Generals of all the High Courts, the Chief Secretaries/ Administrators and the Advocates-General/Senior Standing Counsel of all the States/Union Territories, so that a general consensus could be reached with regard to the need to amend the relevant Rules of Practice/ Criminal Manuals, so as to bring about uniform best