Attorney General calls for new framework for plea bargaining

Hyderabad: Attorney General for India R. Venkataramani has called for a compre-hensive national framework on plea bargaining, stressing the need to align it with India’s social, cultural and economic realities to ensure faster and more transparent justice delivery.

Speaking at a seminar on “Delivering Justice in Time: Global Practices and Indian Experiences”, jointly organised by O.P. Jindal Global University and National Law University Delhi, Venkata-ramani said plea bargaining is increasingly becoming a global norm and India must evolve a struc-tured protocol to guide practitioners and protect victims.

He emphasised that such a framework should promote transparency, objectivity and efficient re-source management within the justice system. Highlighting the strain on judicial resources, he proposed the creation of a National Institute for Criminal Justice Administration to monitor per-formance and efficiency through measurable indices.

Senior advocate and MP Abhishek M. Singhvi highlighted the paradox of India’s legal system, which produces advanced jurisprudence but struggles with massive case backlogs.

Founding Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, C. Raj Kumar flagged the pendency of over five crore cases and called for systemic reforms, including enhanced judicial capacity, procedural changes, technology inte-gration and data-driven governance.

NLU Delhi V-C, G. S. Bajpai cautioned that speed alone does not guarantee justice, stressing that fairness, trans-parency and procedural integrity remain essential for legitimacy in the legal system.