Archaic Quandary of Criminal Justice System in Bangladesh: On the Road to Alternatives

The clients of justice desire uncorrupted, inexpensive and speedy justice. However, it will be not exaggerated to say that the present criminal justice system in Bangladesh is eroding justice seekers’ confidence. The reason for people’s lack of confidence in criminal justice mechanism is due to its faulty, non-scientific and disoriented state in present context. The criminal justice system of Bangladesh emerged from an ancestry of British legacy that originated in the early 17th Century as traders of the East India Company beginning to this sub-continent. Considering the religion based criminal law as disproportionate from their western democratic view, the Company brought about several reforms through a series of regulations which modified or expanded the definitions of some offences, introduced new offences and altered penalties to make them more logical and reasonable. In a related vein, the Penal Code (PC) defining crime and prescribing appropriate punishments was adopted in 1860, following the painstaking work of the First Law Commission of British India, particularly its Chairman Lord Macaulay. The PC has stood the test of time. As a sequel to the PC, a Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) was enacted in 1898 and established the rules to be followed in all stages of investigation, trial and sentencing. These two Codes, along with parts of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, form the essence of India's criminal law and subsequently the criminal law of Bangladesh after its independence in 1971. Since the present criminal justice mechanism suffers with numerous flaws and consequently makes the system vitiated, it is the high time to rethink whether the existing principles and philosophy of our criminal justice system are efficacious anymore. The research will attempt to devise some possible alternatives so that justice can be more efficiently served to its seekers.