Advantages Of Plea Bargaining

Plea-bargaining as defined in Black’s Law Dictionary , “the process whereby the accused and the prosecutor in a criminal case work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case subject to court approval. It usually involves the defendant’s pleading guilty to a lesser offence or to only one or some of the counts of a multi-count indictment in return for a lighter sentence than that possible for the graver charge.”

What is plea-bargaining?

It refers to the pre-trial negotiation between the defendants and prosecution counsel during which the accused/s pleads guilty in exchange for certain reduction in the punishment or concession by the prosecution. Plea-bargaining is further divided into two categories, first category is “charge bargaining”

In Behram v. State of Maharastra, Justice Vantakarama Aiyar brought a clear analysis of the fundamental rights in two broad categories,

1. Rights conferring benefits on the individuals;

2. Rights conferring benefits on the general public,

The Supreme Court in its majority bench judgement held that waiver of a fundamental right was for individual benefit, but could not waive a right which was for the benefit of the general public. In Olga Tellis, Supreme Court held that since the dwellers had agreed upon to not claim any of their Fundamental rights in case the slums are demolished and therefore their claim of protection under article 21. It was argued in the Supreme Court that Fundamental Rights cannot be waived. There can be no estoppel against the Constitution which is the paramount law of the land. The court observed that “No individual can barter away the freedom conferred on him by the Constitution”. Now in the case of plea-bargaining the Right to Appeal is waived of completely once the accused has given his word about being guilty for the offence. But the accused does not have an inherent right to appeal against his conviction and the same has to be conferred by a statute. Part XXI-A of Cr.P.C provides legal sanction to plea-bargaining thus making it an procedure established by law and thus does not violate the rights of the accused, keeping in mind adherence to the 3 key criteria to fulfil legality of plea-bargaining i.e. Knowledge, Intention, Voluntary. Sec- 265-G of Cr.P.C, judgement delivered by the court under section 265-G shall be final and no appeal (except the special leave petition under Article 136 and writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the constitution) shall lie in any court against such