Introduction-Law of Criminal procedure

Intro :

The essential object of criminal law is to protect society against Criminals and law breakers and for this purpose the law holds out threats of punishment to the offenders as well as attempts to make the offender suffer the prescribed punishment for their crimes.

The criminal law in India consists of both the substantive law as well as procedural law. The substantive law defines the offences(eg. Indian Penal Code) and also provide punishments for the said offences and on the other hand the procedural law (The Code of Criminal Procedure) helps in administering the substantive law. In absence of procedural law, the substantive law would be almost worthless. Because, without the enforcement mechanism, the threat of punishments provided by the substantive law would remain empty in practice. If the offenders are not detected, prosecuted and punished then what is the use of meticulously defining the offences and providing punishments for them. Here, the law of criminal procedure comes into picture and plays and important role in detecting, prosecuting and punishing the offenders in accordance with the substantive law. The basic purpose of Cr.P.C is to initiate proceedings against the offender and to prosecute,convict and punish the offender.

Importance:

The criminal procedure is important because of 3 main reasons:

1. It affects a greater number of people than any other law.

2.the subject matter of this law is such that it involves human values to a greater degree     than any other law.

3. Its failure would seriously affect the substantive law which in turn would seriously            affect the protection or security which it gives to the society.

Principles:

The law of criminal procedure is based on three main principles which are essential in providing justice :

1. the first and basic principle of criminal procedure is that an accused person should get a fair trial.

2.every effort should be made to avoid delay in investigation and trial.

3.the procedure should, to the utmost extent possible, ensure fair deal to the poorer sections of the community.