New
Crimes, Old Laws
THE Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990,
guarantees various fundamental rights of the Nepalese citizens. The comprehensive set of
rights contained therein also includes the right to criminal justice. Having these rights
enshrined in the country’s apex statute is one thing, but having them guaranteed in
real, practical terms in the day-to-day life of an average citizen is quite another. The
reality in Nepal is such that many of these fundamental rights are trampled routinely. So
is the case with a citizen’s right to criminal justice in a fair manner. The reasons
for this are not far to seek. Simply put, the criminal justice administration in the
country is so inefficient that the rights of a Nepali to criminal justice is often not
honoured. The start of a two-day workshop on Reforms in Criminal Justice Administration
Tuesday heard most of the speakers including Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya and
Inspector General of Police Pradeep SJB Rana, voicing their concerns vis-a-vis
inefficiency of criminal justice administration. What emerged unmistakably from their
views was that wide-ranging reforms of the criminal justice administration were overdue.
The government has formed a task force to make recommendations for reforms in this
connection and the two-day workshop was jointly organised by the task force and the Police
Headquarters to seek suggestions from public prosecutors, lawyers, human rights activists,
police officers, journalists and others. Chief Justice Upadhyaya’s view that the
present criminal justice administration based on the Civil Code, which is based on
traditional norms and some other laws, was not equal to the task of fulfilling
requirements of the present age, was right on the mark. Disparity and lack of clarity in
the prevalent laws mean that the new challenges facing the criminal justice administration
cannot be dealt with an optimum degree of efficiency. Indeed, the new challenges are many
as the emergence of new crimes is affecting the society. Fiscal crime is also on the
rise.To effectively keep these crimes in check so that citizens rights are protected, the
laws of the land have to be armed with suitable teeth. When legal provisions are silent or
inadequately detailed regarding, say, financial frauds, nefarious elements have an easy
time defrauding the public institutions and unsuspecting citizens. New laws are clearly
needed in many of such areas while old laws need to be amended. The process to reform the
criminal justice administration has to begin without much delay. For, any delay would mean
the society is burdened with more and more such crimes with each passing day.
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