Menon panel recommends splitting of criminal penal code into four

The Madhava Menon Committee on Criminal Justice System has recommended splitting the criminal penal code into four parts based on gravity and nature of offences.

New Delhi, Aug 1 : The Madhava Menon Committee on Criminal Justice System has recommended splitting the criminal penal code into four parts based on gravity and nature of offences.

The four-member panel led by former Director of the National Judicial Academy N R Madhava Menon today submitted its report to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in which it has noted that corruption has taken a 'heavy toll' on the criminal justice system of the country, with money and influence playing a significant role.

The four codes recommended in the criminal law reform section of the 84-page report are Social Welfare Offences Code (SWOC), Correctional Offences Code (COC), Penal Code (PC) and Economic Offences Code (EOC).

While the SWOC would be applicable for offences that are civil in nature, and where arrest and detention will be deemed unnecessary lest there is some sort of violence involved, the COC- more serious than the SWOC offences- may need police intervention.

Minor marriage offences, prohibition offences, vagrancy, minor indiscipline in campuses and work places will be brought under SWOC, whose method of settlement can be more conciliatory than adversarial. Local bodies and Grameen Nyayalayas would be entrusted to manage these at the local level.

Offences related to COC would include offences punishable up to three years of imprisonment and/or fine.

"They (COC offences) are usually not accompanied by violence and are, in most cases, liable to fine, probation and short-term imprisonment only, the report stated.

The third code, Penal Code, will include graver offences punishable with imprisonment beyond three years and, in rarest of rare cases, even with death.

"There has to be greater accountability from enforcement agencies in these cases as they create public alarm and insecurity," the panel recommended.

The panel has recommended an altogether different code for economic offences that would deal with offences, which pose a potential threat to the economic security of the country.

The panel has taken serious view on the issue of witnesses turning hostile and has recommended special schemes to be drawn for the protection of witnesses or victims.

Urging the State governments to immediately implement the Supreme Court directions on police reform, the panel has recommended online registration of FIR, and has stated that non-registration of complaints should be considered a criminal misconduct.

After interacting with 200 experts from various fields of law, administration, media, social work, academia, the committee has recommended setting up of a National Authority that will be co-ordinating between all concerned agencies of the Government, against any threat from terrorism.

The National Authority, according to the panel, would help in dealing with the bio-terrorism and number of such new threats.

The panel has also suggested usage of new scientific tools in criminal investigation and has recommended establishment of crime laboratories to update the relevancy and admissibility of scientific evidence, and to modernize the criminal justice system with the use of information-communication technology.

The panel, which was appointed by Union Home Ministry in May 2006, and held 16 meetings before submitting the report stated that the ultimate objective is to make the criminal justice faster, fairer and less expensive, and recommended affirmative action to safeguard interests of the weaker sections.

The other three members of the panel are Anil Choudhary, former Special Secretary (Internal Security), Mohan Dayal Rijhwani, Senior Advocate, and Kamal Kumar, former Director of National Police Academy.

ANI