Manzar Khayam
In a democratic republic governed by law, the criminal justice system is meant to be a solemn forum for truth-seeking, justice, and social healing. Yet in India, this noble purpose has been tragically compromised. The system that ought to deliver justice has instead evolved into a procedural maze where the accused enjoys ironclad safeguards, while the victim-often the most aggrieved party-is ignored, sidelined, and forgotten.
This lopsided justice is further aggravated by the State’s calculated apathy toward its own law officers-public prosecutors-who are systematically disempowered, humiliated, and stripped of institutional dignity. Meanwhile, the judiciary is elevated to near-divine status, creating an imbalance that not only erodes justice but threatens the very legitimacy of the system itself.
A System Built Around the Accused
India’s criminal jurisprudence justifiably ensures that no person is punished without due process. The accused is protected by an array of rights: presumption of innocence, right to counsel, protection against self-incrimination, double jeopardy, unlawful detention, and arbitrary arrest. These protections are crucial in a country with a long history of custodial abuse and police excesses.
But in practice, these protections have become sacrosanct to the point of absurdity. Every minor lapse in procedure, however unrelated to the substantive guilt of the accused, is used to undermine trials and secure acquittals. The process becomes less about justice and more about exploiting legal loopholes, technicalities, and investigational errors-often unavoidable due to institutional weaknesses.
This leads to a grotesque inversion: the accused becomes the centre of sympathy and legal innovation, while the victim is seen as a nuisance to be endured.
The Silencing of the Victim
India’s criminal law does not treat the victim as a true participant in the justice process. While the accused has legal representation, constitutional protection, and state resources on their side, the victim often navigates the system alone-unheard during bail hearings, uninformed of trial developments, and unprotected against intimidation or harassment.
Rape survivors are subjected to invasive cross-examinations. Families of murder victims are forced to beg for police updates. Witnesses to heinous crimes often recant under pressure. The system offers no sustained counselling, no procedural dignity, and no assurance of closure.
In the corridors of courts, the victim’s grief is overshadowed by legalese. And when acquittals are declared, the judicial commentary often indicts the State’s failure-not to seek justice-but to produce paperwork.
Judges and the ‘Pride’ of Acquittals
It is not uncommon for trial courts and appellate benches to take pride in acquittals, often portraying them as victories of judicial independence. Indeed, judgments are replete with scathing criticism of the police and prosecution-frequently justified-but rarely tempered by empathy for the victim’s shattered life.
Acquittals are sometimes glorified as demonstrations of due process, without adequate reflection on whether truth was served. The judiciary has gradually become a forum more focused on finding fault with procedures than on identifying guilt or vindicating the wronged. The law is a tool-but justice is the goal. And that goal is increasingly being abandoned.
The Prosecutor: The State’s Abandoned Soldier
If victims are the system’s forgotten stakeholders, prosecutors are its abandoned foot soldiers. Though they represent the State and are central to criminal trials, public prosecutors in India are treated not as officers of the court on par with judges or defense counsel, but as subordinates-relegated to mere supporting staff.
Despite being legal professionals tasked with securing justice, prosecutors are deprived of basic facilities-often denied independent office space, chambers, or even a chair in the courtroom. Their access to case files is limited, and their input in trial management is often dismissed or ignored by presiding judges.
In glaring contrast, judges are surrounded by an aura of near-divinity: dedicated courtrooms, plush chambers, armed security, state-sponsored housing, domestic help, cars with beacons, and an institutional reverence that borders on worship. The prosecutor, meanwhile, must seek the judge’s indulgence for the most basic administrative or professional needs. This power asymmetry is no accident-it is systematically created and perpetuated by the State. By exalting the judiciary and ignoring prosecutors, the State not only creates institutional imbalance but weakens its own capacity to uphold justice.
A System Set Up to Fail
The conviction rate in serious crimes-particularly sexual offences and violent crimes-remains abysmally low in India. Much of this failure is attributed to “hostile witnesses” and “poor investigations”, but that only scratches the surface. The deeper malaise lies in:
Undertrained police forces using outdated methods;
Overburdened prosecutors without institutional respect or resources;
A judiciary more focused on procedural purity than substantive justice;
A complete absence of victim support, protection, or empowerment.
This is not a failing of individuals-it is a systemic design flaw that ensures failure.
New Criminal Laws: A Step Forward, But Not Enough
The recently enacted criminal laws in India-Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam-are welcome steps towards modernizing a colonial legal framework. They attempt to streamline procedures, redefine offences, and promote technology in investigation and trial.
But legal reform alone is not sufficient. Without structural overhaul of prosecutorial systems, meaningful victim participation, judicial accountability, and institutional parity, even the best-drafted statutes risk becoming dead letters. Procedural innovation must be matched with systemic introspection.
Towards a More Balanced Justice System
If India wishes to reclaim the soul of its criminal justice system, urgent structural reforms are needed:
Recognize Prosecutors as Officers of the Court: Provide prosecutors with independent status, infrastructure, and professional dignity equivalent to their counterparts in the judiciary.
Empower Victims Legally and Procedurally: Codify victims’ rights, provide them with legal counsel, and ensure their voices are heard meaningfully in court.
Judicial Sensitization: Judges must be trained to respect the prosecutorial role and to engage with victim testimony empathetically, not cynically.
Institutional Equality: End the culture of treating judges as unaccountable elites. The rule of law applies equally to all, including those who interpret it.
State Accountability: Governments must stop glorifying judges at the cost of weakening prosecution and ignoring victims. Justice is a State function-not a judicial ceremony.
Conclusion: Time to Restore Balance
The tragedy of India’s criminal justice system is not just that many guilty walk free. It is that victims-already shattered by crime-are retraumatized by a process that was supposed to protect them. Prosecutors-tasked with defending the law-are denied the tools and dignity to perform. And the judiciary-intended as a neutral arbiter-has been elevated to an insulated sanctum that few dare question.
Justice cannot be a spectacle performed for the accused alone. It must be a comprehensive, balanced process that upholds the rights of all parties-especially the aggrieved.
Until then, the scales of justice in India will remain not blind-but dangerously tilted.
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