Hindu Administrative Institutions c10.s4.8

c10.s4.8

The next point of Edwardes is that suspects were tortured, at a much later date both in Europe and in India, and hence the criminal of the Mauryan epoch could not have had the benefit of the protection afforded by the jury system of to-day. Here again the practice of torturing the suspects in much later times is no argument that in much earlier times there could not have been open trial. According to Monahan torturing the suspected is still in practice. He says: ‘To this day as is well-known, Indian Police Officers, in investigating cases are prone to attach undue importance to the object of procuring a confession and with this object sometimes resort to questionable expedients.¹ We need not be told of course what these expedients are. In the face of this fact could we say there is no institution of trial by jury in India to-day? The fact is that so long as human nature is what it is, such expedients would always exist whether the law allows it or not. But these could not nullify the recognized practice of open trial and a searching enquiry of the case.