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The Supreme Court Bench of Hon’ble Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice LN Rao & Justice S Ravindra Bhatt has directed the State Government’s to amend the criminal laws as per the Draft Rules of Criminal Practice, 2020 within six months.

“All HC's shall take expeditious steps for criminal trials. State Govt's help is necessary in this regard. The UOI & State Govt to do amendments as per the Draft Rules of Criminal Practice, 2020 submitted by Sr Adv Mr R Basant within 6 months from today.”, CJI remarked.

The Bench was hearing a suo moto PIL registered by Division Bench comprising Justice SA Bobde & Justice LN Rao on March 30, 2017 after Sr Adv R Basant during the course of hearing of Criminal Appeal No.400/2006 and connected matters pointed out certain common inadequacies and deficiencies in the course of trial adopted by the trial court while disposing of criminal cases. In particular, he pointed out that though there were beneficial provisions in the Rules of some of the High Courts which ensured that certain documents such as list of witnesses and the list of exhibits/material objects referred to, were annexed to the judgment and order itself of the trial court, these features did not exist in Rules of some other High Courts. 

On March 30, 2017, the Court issued notice to to the Registrars General of all the High Courts, and the Chief Secretaries/the Administrators and the Advocates-General/Senior Standing Counsel of all the States/Union Territories, in order to arrive at a general consensus on the need to amend the relevant Rules of Practice/ Criminal Manuals to bring about uniform best practices across the country. 

Senior Advocate (s) R Basant & Siddharth Luthra on November 7, 2017 were appointed as amicus curiae & the Court directed Sr Adv Siddharth Luthra to serve fresh notices to all the unserved respondents–States/Union Territories and also their Standing Counsel, and the Registrars General of the High Courts, notifying of the matter and calling upon them to enter appearance and file their respective affidavits.

The Court also constituted a Committee comprising Amicus Curiae comprising of Mr. Sidharth Luthra, learned Senior Counsel, Mr. R. Basant, learned Senior Counsel and Mr. K. Parameshwar, learned counsel, to examine the issues after considering the existing rules of all the High Courts. On March 5, 2020 the Learned Amicus Curiae produced a report which included Draft Rules of Criminal Practice,2020.

Case Title: Re: To Issue Certain Guidelines Regarding Inadequacies And Deficiencies In Criminal Trials Vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh