Plea Bargaining and India's 5 Crore Pending Cases: The Case for Reform

Over five crore cases are pending in Indian courts. District courts carry 4.76 crore of these. The backlog is structural -- technology projects and fast-track courts have not resolved it -- and plea bargaining remains the underused reform most capable of making a dent.

Chapter XXI-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) permits plea bargaining for offences punishable by up to seven years, excluding socio-economic offences and crimes against women and children. Two decades after the 2005 amendment, usage remains below one per cent.

Prosecutors lack training and institutional incentives to negotiate. Defence lawyers are paid per court appearance, creating a financial disincentive to settle. Low public awareness means most litigants do not know the option exists.

A 'Sahmati Samadhan Nyaya Mission' would train prosecutors, reform lawyer payment structures, encourage judicial facilitation of pre-trial settlement, build public awareness and create oversight systems against coercion. The Attorney General has publicly supported a national protocol.

More than 90 per cent of US criminal cases are resolved through plea deals. England, Canada and Australia show similarly high negotiated resolution rates. India's system has different norms and incentive structures, but the basic logic -- that certainty of outcome serves justice better than the remote possibility of a full trial -- translates.

The e-Courts mission, Lok Adalats, fast-track courts for specific offences, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 are the current reform instruments. Article 21's right to speedy trial provides the constitutional basis for reform urgency.