KATHMANDU, Dec 21: The existing Criminal Procedure Code is being amended with an aim to make legal procedures technology friendly.

A parliamentary panel working on the bill to replace the traditional Criminal Procedure Code is likely to approve some provisions proposed by the government in the bill with a view to transform the legal procedure into tech-friendly procedure, said its coordinator Laxman Lal Karna.

The government has proposed allowing the general public to file any complaints to the police through email or any other means of electronic tool. 

“The existing legal provisions only recognize written complaints. But when the bill is endorsed from the parliament, people may register their complaints via email or other electronic tools,” said Karna. He said that the committee is amending the bill to make the legal procedure less lengthy and technology friendly.

In another move to modernizing the legal procedure, the bill has proposed allowing statement recording of witnesses of any incident through video conference. 

Likewise, the bill has also proposed expanding jurisdiction of the police to investigate on any cases occurred outside the country. “This provision allows the police to investigate or arrest any criminal conducting cyber related or any other crimes in the country by residing abroad,” said Karna. 

The government had registered five bills to replace the 163-year-old Muluki Ain (Law of the Land) in 2014, which was first enacted by the then Prime Minister Junga Bahadur Rana in 1953. 

One of the bills proposes introducing about 40 percent new legal provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Muluki Ain to address the changing scenario of modern jurisprudence, said Karna. 

“We are introducing around 40 percent new provisions in the bill in a bid to address the modern jurisprudence. We have some important precedents set by the Supreme Court as references,” he said.

During deliberation on the bill, the parliamentary panel has received lots of feedbacks from the police over limiting its jurisdiction to arrest any suspect without proper proof or arrest warrant.

 
• criminal procedure code
 
• tech-friendly