The system of plea bargaining will form part of the Criminal Procedure Code with effect from Wednesday, providing an opportunity to the accused in criminal cases to plead guilty to the crime in lieu of a lesser sentence than what is provided for in the law.
The new system is considered to be an effective step towards reducing pendency of criminal cases in trial courts and overcrowding in jails.
From now on, accused in criminal cases, where the maximum punishment does not exceed seven years, would enjoy the incentive to plead guilty to the offence in exchange for a lesser sentence to be decided by the court through a set out procedure.
The Union Home Ministry had issued a notification on Tuesday night giving effect to 'plea bargaining' under the provisions of the criminal law amended by Parliament in December 2005. With the notification, the system became part of the Criminal Procedure Code (Chapter 21 A of Cr PC).
However, the new system is not applicable to criminal cases against women and children, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, white-collar crimes like money laundering and social crimes like sati.
The benefit of plea bargaining will be available to an accused if he had not committed the same crime before.
A highlight of the new system is that the accused should pay compensation to the victim, besides admitting to the crime. This requires the consent of the victim, judge and prosecutor.
Under the plea-bargaining provision, an accused will not be sentenced to less than one-fourth and not more than one-third of the total punishment prescribed for the offence under the CrPC.
