Resources must to make goals of new laws real: CJI

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud called for courts to be provided will adequate material resources in order to realise the goal of speedy trial under the new criminal codes.

He was delivering the keynote address during the inaugural session of a conference organised by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, reports the Bar and Bench. He said that the new laws marked a watershed moment in India's history, signifying its transition into a new age of criminal justice administration.

"The BNSS (Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Samahita) provides that criminal trials must be completed in three years and that a judgment must be pronounced within 45 days of it being reserved.

This stipulation is a breath of fresh air for addressing the issue of case pendency as well as the rights of the victim and the accused in a criminal case," he said.

However, he observed that such statutory timelines would not be of much use if they are not supported by material resources for the courts and prosecutors.

"If the court infratructure and the prosecution lack material resources to harness technology and conduct an efficient and speedy trial, then the guarantees of the BNSS may run the risk of becoming merely directory and unimplementable," CJI Chandrachud said.