Role of Adversarial Model in Indian Criminal Justice System: A Critical Analysis

India adopted adversarial system being a common law country for dispensing its criminal justice system. Said system has been inherited and adopted from the British colonies. In adversarial system, the investigation is conducted by Police and other investigating agents, and relying on investigation the trial is conducted against the accused. In this system the accused enjoys privilege of being innocent until proven guilty by the prosecution. The prosecution has to prove the guilt of accused beyond reasonable doubt. All this concept of innocence is premised on the doctrine of “Ten criminals may go unpunished, but one innocent person should not be convicted”. But now a days there is a huge cry about the acquittal of accused, and questions are raised, whether said doctrine and premise is unduly favouring accused? Whether presumption of Innocence is favoring the accused? In this regard, the report of Justice Malimath Committee has recommended several recommendations and recommended to adopt some provisions of inquisitorial system to strengthen the present adversarial system. This shows that the adversarial system is not strong enough to dispense the justice to the victim and punish the wrong doer. The Judges in the adversarial system have to take active participant in the trial to search the truth, to protect the rights of victim and punish the wrong doer.