Fair Investigation: Backbone of Criminal Justice System
Dr. Parminder Kaur
Fair trial and fair investigation are part of constitutional rights guaranteed under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Therefore, the minimum requirement of rule of law is that the investigation must be fair, transparent and judicious. The investigating agency cannot be permitted to conduct an investigation in a tainted and biased manner so as to take away the basic fundamental right of the accused who as per law is to be presumed innocent till proved guilty. A victim, would equally be entitled to a fair investigation. Thus, in this context, this paper tends to analyze as to whether our Investigating agencies have been able to embrace the objective modes of investigation or not?
Introduction
In a democratic setup, peace and harmony are two inevitable components. But equally true is the fact that commission of crimes can’t be avoided. However, it’s not always the commission of crime that may be the deleterious to peace and harmony of the society, but what may be, is the defective investigation.
Defective investigation tends to shake the faith reposed by the members of the society including the suspect/accused as well as Victim. The most effected would be suspect because all have to be presumed to be innocent till proved guilty and tainted investigation would curtail his freedoms i.e. life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India (Nirmal Singh Kahlon vs State of Punjab & Ors, (2009) 1).
Likewise, victims, as they have surrendered their rights in legitimate expectation of protection of their interests including safe environment. (Violence Against Children: International Criminal Justice Norms And Strategies) So, it necessitates striking a balance between the conflicting interests of accused and the Victim, for which, evidently fair investigation is the solitary solution.
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