This Slides include legal procedure in criminal courts in Nepal with focusing on Medical jurisprudence

1. Legal procedure in criminal courts
Presenters:
Sandeepa Poudel
Sangeeta Gautam
Sareeta Tiwaree
Shanti Acharya
Shantiram Misra
Social Pharmacy and
Pharmaceutical Jurisprudence
Eight Semester
Bachelor of
Pharmaceutical
Sciences
Pokhara University
Dhungepatan,
Pokhara-30 Kaski,
Gandaki, Nepal

2. Crime
• Crime is a act prohibited and punished by law.
• Law is the discipline and profession concerned
with the customs, practices, and rules of conduct
of a community that are recognized as binding by
the community.
• A person who has committed a crime is know as
criminal.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/law

3. Definitions
Court (अदालत) means the Supreme Court, High
Court or District Court, and this term also includes
any other court, judicial body or authority
empowered by law to proceed, hear and adjudicate
any specific type of criminal cases.
Source: The National Criminal Procedure (Code) Act, 2017

4. • Judge (न्यायाधीश) means the authority of a court
to proceed, hear and adjudicate a case, and this
term also includes an authority competent to
proceed, hear and adjudicate a criminal case.
• Grave offence (ग्रेभ अपराध) means any offence
punishable by a sentence of imprisonment for a
term of more than three and less than ten years.
• Heinous offence (जघन्य अपराध) means any
offence punishable by a sentence of imprisonment
for life or for a term of more than ten years.
Source: The National Criminal Procedure (Code) Act, 2017

5. • Investigating Authority (अनुसन्धान प्राधधकरण)
means an authority designated under this Act or
competent authority under law to make
investigation into any offence, and this term also
includes an investigation team formed to
investigate into any specific offence.
• Adjudicating Authority means an authority
empowered by law to proceed, hear and adjudicate
a case, and this term also includes, in the case of a
person taken in custody, a court nearby the place
where the person is taken in custody.
Source: The National Criminal Procedure (Code) Act, 2017

6. • Government attorney means the Attorney General,
Deputy Attorney General, Joint Attorney, Deputy
Attorney, District Attorney or Assistant District
Attorney, and this term also includes an officer
designated by the Attorney General to act in the
capacity of government attorney.
Source: The National Criminal Procedure (Code) Act, 2017

7. Medical jurisprudence
• Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the
branch of science and medicine involving the
study and application of scientific and medical
knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, an
in the field of law.
• As modern medicine is a legal creation, regulated
by the state, and medicolegal cases involving
death, rape, paternity etc. require a medical
practitioner to produce evidence and appear as an
expert witness.

8. Legal procedure at an Inquest
An inquest is a legal inquiry into the circumstances
and the cause of death of a deceased person in
cases of sudden, suspicious and unnatural death.
The types of inquest followed in Nepal are:
• Police inquest
• Magistrate inquest
• Coroner’s inquest

9. Police Inquest
• An officer usually of the rank of a sub-inspector
of police in charge of a police station on
receiving any information of accidental or
unnatural death, they immediately informs the
nearest magistrate and proceeds to the place
where the body of deceased person is lying.
• They draws up a report on the apparent cause of
the death, as judged from the appearance and
surrounding of the body describing such wounds
and factures.

10. Magistrate inquest
• The district magistrate, judicial magistrate or the
revenue officials such as district collector, deputy
collector designed as the executive magistrates
by the government hold an inquest in case of
death occurring.
 In prison
 In police custody
 Due to police firing
 Exhumation
 As dowry death

11. Alternative Dispute Resolution
(ADR)
• Settling private disputes, especially business
disputes, through the courts can be a
cumbersome, lengthy, and expensive process
for litigants so , the various forms of alternative
dispute resonation (ADR) have assumpt increasing
importance in recent years. The most common
forms of ADR are mediation and arbitration.
• In mediation, a neutral third party acceptable to
both sides acts as a mediator. The mediator has no
power to make a binding decision, but assist the
parties in reaching a settlement.

12. Coroner’s Inquest
• A coroner was an officer of the rank of First Class
magistrate, appointed by the government.
• The coroner’s was a doctor, lawyer, or both and
was assisted by the deputy coroner.
• The coroner’s court is only a court of inquiry, and
not a trial court.

13. Discrepancy between the
Inquest Report and the Post-
mortem Report
• When the medical officer finds grave differences
between the inquest and the autopsy, he can
inform the investigating officer through the police
constable to meet him at the earliest.
• Even if there is some discrepancy between the
inquest report and the post mortem report the list
of injuries, mentioned in the inquest report
cannot prevail over the details of the post-
mortem report.

14. Cognisable Offences
• It means that the police officer can arrest a
person without a warrant from the
Magistrate.
• In case of rape and other such cognisable
offences , the individual is send by the Sub-
inspector of police to the medical officer for
medical examination along with his recorded
statement.
• In case of assault, the injured person may go
directly to the medical officer with the permission
of the police officer, if he thinks it is necessary.

15. Cases
• Cases are the matter that are being investigated
into and may be decided in a court of law. Cases
are classified according to Section 9 of the Muluki
Ain into two groups:
A. Civil
B. Criminal
Cases such as partitions, transactions, land related
cases, contracts , arson rape illegal marriage are
criminal cases.
Cases such as transactions, donations, inheritance,
adoptions, trust etc. are civil cases.

16. Medico-legal Role of Doctors
• Medical practitioners have to submit medico- legal
report on both civil and criminal cases along with
their opinion.
• They should provide their expert opinion to the
police, public prosecutor, and the court after
conducting different types of investigations.
• They have to go to the court for depositions as
expert witnesses if summonded. In court they have
to face examination, cross-examination , re-
examination.

17. Medical Evidences Provided by
Medical Practitioner
Medical
Certificates
Death
Certificates
Medicolegal
Reports
Dying
Declaration
Birth
Certificates

18. Phase of Nepalese Criminal
Justice System And Role of
Related Agencies

19. Difficulties in detection of crime
• Lack of training to the doctors and the staffs doing
medico-legal and post-mortem examination.
• Very less availability of Forensic medicine specialist
in Nepal.
• Mortuaries lacking basic facilities.
• Problems of the public.
• Forensic science laboratory of Nepal is not well
equipped with adequate facilities.
• Climatic conditions leads to decomposition of dead
body rapidly which may alter the evidence
available.

20. Penal Powers of Courts
• Some penal powers of court are:
1. Imprisonment for life
2. imprisonment-either rigorous (with hard labour)
or simple.
3. Forfeiture of property
4. Fine

21. Process of Appearing in a court
of law
A. Summons or Subpoena
• It is a document compelling the attendance of a
witness in a court in writing, in duplicates, signed
by the presiding officer of the court and bears the
seal of the court.
• It is served on the witness usually by a police
officer.
• A summons must be obeyed and the witness
should produce documents if asked for .
• The witness will be excused from attending the
court if he has a valid and urgent reason.

22. B. Conduct Money
• It is the fee offered to a witness in a civil case at
the time of service of summons to meet his
expenses for attending the court.
• In criminal cases, conduct money is not paid at the
time of service of summons and the witness is paid
his expenses as per law by the court after his/her
deposition.

23. C. Oath Taking
• The witness stand on the dock and takes the oath
before deposition.
• The witness is to take the oath by reading or
quoting the following with the help of Bench clerk
“The evidence which I shall give to the court, shall
be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.”

24. After oath taking, recording of
evidence will be done in
following order
Examination-in-chief: This is the first examination
of witness and the questions are put to him by
the lawyer for the side, which has summoned him.
The object is to place before the court collect all the
facts that bear on the case. Leading question are
not allowed, except when the witness is hostile.
Cross Examination: In this, the witness is questioned
by the lawyer of the opposite party i.e. lawyer for the
accused. It may last for hours or days. Leading
question are permissible.

25. A witness should not lose temper or argue during
cross-examinations as this will go in favor of
defense.
Re-examination: This is conducted by the lawyer
who has conducted examination-in-chief. The object
is to clarify any discrepancy or obscure points. The
witness should not bring in any new subject at this
stage. Leading question are not allowed.

26. Question by judge: The judge may ask any question
at any stage of the examination to clear up doubts.
On conclusion of the evidence, the witness should
read over his own deposition very carefully before
his signs. The witness can leave the court after
taking permission of the court.

27. References
1. The National Criminal Code Procedure (Code) Act,
2017
2. URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/law
(Assessed on 2021/03/12)
3. Mitsui Tsuneo (1997) New Cosmetic Science (2nd
Ed.) Elseveir, Amsterdam, pp 73-88

28. THANK
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