Sunanda Pushkar's case reflects badly on the functioning of our criminal justice system : Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon

Founder director of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru and the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, Prof. Dr. N.R.  Madhava Menon found fault with the Delhi Police for the ‘snail’s pace’ at which it moved to register a FIR in Sunanda Pushkar's case. 

File Picture: Prof. Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon

Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon also criticized the plan of Delhi Police to send the viscera samples of Pushkar abroad for further examination. 

"Now Delhi Police is saying that the forensic examination needs to be done abroad. Though, we have the capacity, it was not done properly. Even the All India Institute of Medical Sciences took one year to come out with a result. It is such as serious offence," said Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of 155th anniversary celebrations of Indian Penal Code conducted by the Directorate of Prosecution, Government of Kerala, in Kochi on Saturday.  

"It is not the personality involved. But it shows the way criminal justice is moving at a snail's pace even in the case of such a serious offence. It reflects badly", he added. 

Addressing public prosecutors on the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and criminal justice at the function, Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon stressed the point that the IPC demands a total revamp for ensuring speedy delivery of justice.

"We keep on amending rape law making it very difficult. We have noxious pieces of legislations. If the wife dies within seven years of marriage under unnatural circumstances, the husband is guilty of murder. Shashi Tharoor could have been guilty of murder on the face of it. Even a FIR was not registered in one year. It is a test case of how our criminal justice system functioning", Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon said.