SC: Sidharth Luthra and R Basant appointed as Amicus Curiae to introduce uniform guidelines in criminal trials

In order to streamline the process of criminal trials, the Supreme Court bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao has on Tuesday appointed senior counsel Sidharth Luthra and R. Basant as Amicus Curiae in the matter of In Re: To issue certain guidelines regarding inadequacies and deficiencies in criminal trials v. the state of Andhra Pradesh and others.

The court has taken suo moto cognizance on the issue of & lsquo inadequacies and deficiencies in criminal trials' based on the suggestions forwarded by R. Basant. He asserted that in the interest of better administration of criminal justice system and have uniformity over different parts of the country.

Supreme Court should consider issue of certain general guidelines to be followed by all criminal courts. In order to implement this, the court had issued notices to Registrars General of all High Courts and the Chief secretaries/ the Administrators and the Advocates general/ Senior standing counsels for all the states/ Union territories to arrive at general understanding to amend the relevant rules of practice/ Criminals Manuals to bring about uniform best practices across the country.

All the respondents have been directed to furnish copies of their respective reply affidavits to both the Amicus Curiae. The matter is scheduled for hearing on December 12.