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STATES:
ANDHRA PRADESH
Long
Shot
The state
gears up to become the first to dispense justice electronically
By
Amarnath K. Menon
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| Undertrials
availing the video conferencing facility await justice |
When
S. Manoj, a young MBA working for a cellular-phone company, appeared on
a large Sony screen to explain how he is languishing in the Central prison,
Hyderabad, for the past 11 months, he took Chief Justice M.S. Liberhan
of the Andhra Pradesh High Court by surprise. Manoj is aware of the fact
that like him, there are several others facing the serious charge of murder.
And again, like him they are unable, for different reasons, to approach
the courts to seek justice.
Now all
that is poised to change. At least in e-conscious Andhra Pradesh. The
state plans to provide video links with the Integrated Services Digital
Network (ISDN) connectivity between courtrooms and jails. Once it becomes
operational, the accused will only have to go to a room in the jail premises
fitted with a digital camera and large screens for a video trial by the
judge. The move is mainly intended to obviate the need for producing remand
prisoners in courts. Andhra Pradesh will become the first state in the
country where extension of remand will take place electronically.
Last week,
Liberhan and six high court judges, B. Subashan Reddy, Motilal Naik, V.V.S.
Rao, R.M. Bapat, C.Y. Somayajulu and T.C.H. Surya Rao, made judicial history
of sorts when they assembled in a court room of the City Criminal Courts
complex. Sitting in front of TV monitors, they listened as Manoj and seven
other fellow prisoners in the jail, some 10 km away, underscored how the
convergence of law and new communication technology held out hope of a
speedy trial. The information sought by the judges from the undertrials
were whether they had moved applications for bail, the duration of their
detention, details of the crime they are accused of as well as personal
details.
What created
an impression on the judges was the fact that the accused spoke without
inhibition or fear of retribution while using the unique video conferencing
facility. "The accused are under tremendous psychological pressure
when they are taken to court and made to wait their turn. During the trial-by-video
they can speak freely," says Manoj, who is accused of attempting
to murder his mother though he alleges it is a frame-up. An added advantage
is that they do not have to wear shackles during the journey to and from
court. Also, the police do not have to spare men-already in short supply-to
escort undertrials to courts or worry about being given the slip.
Stemming
the Docket-Explosion: It is the judicial and prison administration
which stands to gain the most. First, there is a cutback in adjournments,
often the result of an accused not being present at a hearing. On-camera
trials do not require the accused to travel to courts and they can be
released, if permissible, on bail instantly. Second, it opens the door
for digitising documents and court records to stem the docket-explosion
that plagues the Indian judiciary. Third, the prison authorities have
to spend less on taking the undertrials time and again to court. What
is more, an early trial helps check the crowding of jails. "Undertrials
outnumber the convicts. Long incarceration often turns petty offenders
into hardened criminals," admits the state's director-general of
prisons M.V. Krishna Rao. The 141 jails in the state can accommodate 12,347
inmates. While there are 4,315 convicts lodged in these jails, another
9,233 remand prisoners add to the woes of a fund-starved prison administration.
Moreover, nearly 1,000 policemen are deployed each day to take prisoners
to the 350 courts-stretching the use of available funds beyond limits.
Evidently,
the inordinate delay in implementing the recommendations of the A.N. Mulla
Commission on prison reforms has worsened the conditions of jails in several
states. Reformist Andhra Pradesh hopes to achieve a breakthrough by reducing
the number of undertrials in jails and lessen the pressure on prison administration.
The state Government plans to unveil its policy on the video conference
procedure between judges and prisoners on getting the green signal from
the high court. After which, creating the facilities to implement this
procedure will be required. For all this the state Legislative Assembly
has to first amend Section 167 (2)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code which
currently reads: "No magistrate shall authorise detention in any
custody under this section unless the accused is produced before him."
It has to be altered to read: "No magistrate shall authorise detention
in any custody under this section unless the accused is produced before
him either in person or through the medium of electronic video linkage."
There is
a flip-side to any well-intentioned measure. Those in the judiciary are
wary of some of those appearing from the comfort of a prison being tutored
by overzealous or irresponsible staff. Countering this, some prison officials
argue that the magistrates can see the remand prisoners instead of signing
extension orders forwarded by court clerks mechanically. Such minor roadblocks
apart, when introduced in six towns in the state, the usually conservative
courts can show that they are capable of coping with change.
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