Description

Laws, Justice and Rights for Women in the Modern Era
Editor: Prof. Dr. Yogesh Kumar Gupta, Ishan Ahmad and Premananda Murmu
Published by Universal Academic Books Publishers and Distributors,
New Delhi (India)
ISBN: 978-81-686113-5-1, 2026

Chapter 34

The Role of Forensic Evidence in Ensuring Speedy and Fair Trial in India: Challenges and Reforms

Mansi Srivastava
Research Scholar, College of Legal Studies, COER University, Roorkee, India.

Abstract

Forensic evidence is known to help in finding out the facts of the criminal cases with a scientific method in a systematic and particular manner but there are several problems faced by the forensic experts to provide the evidence for the particular cases and thus some reforms are needed to be done by the experts of the forensic department and the court which may help them to provide a speedy justice to the victims and the accused of the criminal cases. This paper discusses about the challenges faced by the forensic experts in collecting the evidence due to which there is a failure in speedy and fair trial is there are less supported staff by which the problems are faced in securing the honesty of the evidence for the admissibility in the court, delays in collecting the evidence because not much forensic experts are trained to interpret the data collected at the crime scene, providing resources such as equipment in forensic laboratory funding needed for collecting and researching the data of the facts and preparing the document which needed to be presented in the court for the proof of the case, lack of competent legal counsel which are there to balance the rights between accused and victim and the reforms needed to be done to provide the fair trial such as forensic experts needed to collect the data and maintain the documents of all stage at the time of collection of evidence by maintain proper protocols, establishing the courts for the cases which needed to speedy trail and providing the compensation to the one who had been wrongfully convicted by which the court can provide justice without delaying unreasonably.

Keywords

Forensic, Criminal, Fair Trail, Evidence, Justice

1. INTRODUCTION

Justice delayed is justice denied

– William Ewart Gladston

As there is no constitutional provision directly governed by the constitution regarding forensic evidence Article 20(3) right to self-incrimination gives immunity to the accused has no right to be the witness against himself and Article 21 which states right to life and personal liberty which helps to get right of speedy trial as a fundamental right. It is admissible by the governing statute such as The Indian Evidence Act 1872 now known as Bhartiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, Indian Penal Code 1860 now known as Bhartiya Nayaya Sanhita 2023 as Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 known as Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023. Forensic Evidence provide a systematic study of the case to study scientifically each step of the case to provide a fair, impartial, timely and reliable justice to victim or culprit. It helps to provide a detailed structure of the case by scientific method which helps to understand the method of the crime attempted and provide fair trial as well as speedy justice of that case. Government is taking lots of imitative to improve forensic laboratory such as strengthening DNA in Forensic Science Laboratory, National Forensic Infrastructure Enhancement Scheme (NFIES) establishing many campuses in the form of forensic university and laboratory with trained forensic professionals so that the burden of forensic research be less and speedy testing for each case be done.