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Cia - Ba0160032

The document compares adversarial and inquisitorial criminal justice systems. In an adversarial system, the role of the court is to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused based on evidence presented by the prosecution and defense. An inquisitorial system aims to discover the truth of the matter without focusing solely on the guilt or innocence of the accused. Countries differ in their use of these systems - the US and UK employ more adversarial approaches while France uses an inquisitorial model. Key differences are the judge's role in gathering evidence, burden of proof, and presumption of innocence between the two systems. The document argues that a hybrid model incorporating aspects of both may be most suitable for India's criminal justice system.

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Piyush Chakravarty
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48 views2 pages

Cia - Ba0160032

The document compares adversarial and inquisitorial criminal justice systems. In an adversarial system, the role of the court is to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused based on evidence presented by the prosecution and defense. An inquisitorial system aims to discover the truth of the matter without focusing solely on the guilt or innocence of the accused. Countries differ in their use of these systems - the US and UK employ more adversarial approaches while France uses an inquisitorial model. Key differences are the judge's role in gathering evidence, burden of proof, and presumption of innocence between the two systems. The document argues that a hybrid model incorporating aspects of both may be most suitable for India's criminal justice system.

Uploaded by

Piyush Chakravarty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ADVERSARIAL AND INQUISITORIAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE

SYSTEMS

There are many different types of the criminal justice system to keep and maintain order and
peace within their area of jurisdiction creating a social code of conduct, the law. There are two
main justice systems:

1. Adversary system

2. Inquisitorial system

Adversarial system is based on the philosophy that the function of the criminal justice system
is to determine guilt or innocence of the accused person. Whereas, the inquisitorial system
works for finding out the truth in the matter at hand and is not concerned about the guilt or
innocence of the accused person.

In US, there is no single civil or criminal court system. the federal system has a court process
at the national level, and each State and territory has its own set of rules and regulations that
affect the judicial process. At the federal level all accused are entitled to have their cases
considered by a grand jury as per the 5th amendment. But, it is not binding on the State. The
system is adversarial. The judge conducting a jury trial is not a mere moderator, but is the
governor of the trial for the purpose of assuring its proper conduct and the fair and impartial
administration of justice between the parties to the litigation. In UK, trials are either summary
trials or trials of indictment. Information is being put by the clerk on the accused. The most
serious offences are triable only on indictment. A trial on indictment begins with the clerk of
court putting the counts in the indictment to the accused. In French system, which is
inquisitorial there is no plea of guilty as is done in the adversarial system of trial. The court
must be satisfied of the accused’s guilt. The presiding judge is entitled to question the accused.
The judge may examine only key witnesses orally in most of the cases.

In adversarial system the guilt of the accused is determined, the inquisitorial system functions
with the objective of finding out the truth in matter at hand and not just resolving the conflict
through determining the guilt or innocence of the accused but getting to the reality of the issue
at hand so as to reveal the truth behind the stories of both accused and victim. A judge, in
adversarial system is not supposed to inquire the matter herself, she depends on the prosecutor
to know the story of the prosecution and on the defence counsel to know the side of the defence.
In the inquisitorial system is based on the very assumption that judges take up the whole
responsibility of inquiry, evidence, and ultimately revealing the truth. In this whole process,
both defence and prosecution counsels take a back seat unlike in the adversarial system. The
whole adversarial system is based on this doctrine of “presumed innocent until proven guilty”.
The court presumes that the accused person is not guilty, unless the prosecution proves it before
the court, beyond the reasonable doubt. Whereas, the inquisitorial system does not follow this
“presumption of innocence” doctrine in practice although theoretically this is also contained in
the inquisitorial criminal justice system. The burden is a lot on the counsels when it comes to
the adversarial system while inquisitorial system is mostly on the judges. The judge is the
principal interrogator.

In a country like India, where the criminal system is linked to the political system, it difficult
to get the “justice” one deserves. When FIR’s are changed at the instance of filing and charge
sheets are framed at the whims and fancies, inquisitorial system, is a better option because of
the application of judicial mind at the stage of trial is necessary in India. “Fair trial” is a myth
in our system. An inclination towards the inquisitorial system will benefit the criminal justice
system more than the current adversarial system in India. India has a mix and match of both.
There are enough powers given to the magistrates and the judicial mind of a judge via Section
227 and 228 of the CrPC. There has to be a mix and match of the adversarial system and
inquisitorial system in India.

Piyush Chakravarty

BA0160032

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