PLEA BARGAINING

Submitted by – Abhinav Swaraj Submitted to – Dr. Peter F.

Ladis
Roll no – 1504, Faculty of Criminal law - 2
TH
4 semester, BA.LLB.(Hons.)

ROUGH DRAFT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF COURSE TITLED Criminal law - 2 FOR
COMPLETION OF BA.LLB. (HONS.)

APRIL 2017

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

NYAYA NAGAR, MITHAPUR,
PATNA (BIHAR)
 Nani Palkhivala has rightly said that the greatest drawback of the administration of justice in
India today is because of delay of cases. A new concept of plea bargaining was introduced
after the amendment Act of 2005 in Code of Criminal Procedure to reduce the delay in the
disposal of criminal trials and appeals and also to alleviate the suffering of under trial
prisoners. The 142nd, 154th Law Commission Reports and the recommendations of the
Malimath Committee were taken into consideration before the amendment to the Act. Plea
Bargaining is essentially derived from the principle of ‘Nolo Contendere’ which literally
means ‘I do not wish to contend’. The apex court has interpreted this doctrine as an ‘implied
confession, a quasi-confession of guilt, a formal declaration that the accused will not
contend, a query directed to the Court to decide on plea-guilt, a promise between the
Government and the accused, and a Government agreement on the part of the accused that
the charge of the accused must be considered as true for the purpose of a particular case
only.’ In its most traditional and general sense, “plea- bargaining” entails pre-trial negotiation
between the defendant and the prosecution, during which the defendant agrees to plead guilty
in exchange of certain concessions by the prosecution. The rationale underlying the
introduction of the concept of plea - bargaining is to enable speedier trials and to negotiate
between the victim and the accused to find a “mutually satisfactory disposition”.

Objective

To discuss about the concept of ‘Plea Bargaining’ under the Code of Criminal Procedure taking
help of the various provisions. It is also an objective of this project to study the scope of Plea
Bargaining under Cr.P.C and observe it’s requirement in the society by discussing it’s
advantages and disadvantages.

Review of Literature

K.P. Pradeep in his article Plea Bargaining- New Horizon In Criminal Jurisprudence has
suggested that the plea bargaining is only possible in cases of a private case u/s 190 of the Code
only after the Magistrate has taken cognizance. Further, Justice M R Mallick, Durga Das Basu
Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 has written that the practice of plea bargaining is only applicable
to the non-severe crimes under the Indian Law and for that reason it won’t be applicable to
crimes of socio-economic nature or that are committed against women or children under the age
of 14 years where the imprisonment exceeds 7 years.

Source of Data
In order to accomplish the objective stated above the methodology followed is of descriptive
nature based on secondary sources, i.e., books and electronic sources (internet).

Hypothesis

The introduction of this concept through the amendment carried out by the Amendment Act,
2005 is disputed concept. However, I think this practice can be used to reduce the backlog of
criminal cases existing in various courts across the country. But, I also think that this might be
unconstitutional in nature and may demoralize the confidence of the public in the justice
redressal system of the country.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

a) What is the historical evolution of Plea bargaining in India?

b) What is the scope and relevance of Plea Bargaining under Cr.P.C. with regards to Indian
society?

CHAPTERISATION

1. Discuss the historical origin of Plea Bargaining in India.

2. Discuss the various types of Plea Bargaining.
3. Discuss the scope of Plea Bargaining under Cr.P.C.
4. Discuss the advantages of Plea Bargaining in Indian society.
5. Discuss the disadvantages of prevalent practice of Plea Bargaining for Indian society.

MODE OF CITATION

The project follows the uniform citation of Bluebook Standard form of Citation 19th edition.

SCOPE & LIMITATION

The project studies the concept of Plea Bargaining only in the context of Cr.P.C. and covers
only the Indian society as it’s area of research.