Right to speedy trial
Topic: Fundamental Rights and Constitutional Remedies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "Rights in the Indian Constitution"
Meaning
The right to speedy trial means that an accused person must be tried without unreasonable delay. The Constitution does not list it separately. The Supreme Court read it into Article 21 in Hussainara Khatoon (1979), a case about undertrials in Bihar. Undertrials are prisoners who are kept in jail while their case is still being decided. A trial delayed for years punishes a person before any court has found them guilty.
Example
Machal Lalung was arrested at the age of 23. He was freed only in July 2005, at 77, after an NHRC team stepped in. His 54 years in jail as an undertrial were a clear breach of the right to speedy trial.
Related concepts
- Protection in respect of conviction for offences
- Ex post facto law
- Double jeopardy
- Right against self-incrimination
- Narco-analysis test
- Protection against arrest and detention
- D.K. Basu guidelines
- Preventive detention
- Advisory board
- National Security Act 1980