INSTITUTIONALIZING NEGOTIATION: PLEA BARGAINING AND THE DEMISE OF THE “FORGOTTEN ENTITY” IN INDIAN COURTS

AUTHOR – KAJAL MISHRA* & DR. JYOTSNA SINGH**

* LLM (CRIMINAL LAW) STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH, LUCKNOW CAMPUS

** ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH, LUCKNOW CAMPUS

BEST CITATION – KAJAL MISHRA & DR. JYOTSNA SINGH, INSTITUTIONALIZING NEGOTIATION: PLEA BARGAINING AND THE DEMISE OF THE “FORGOTTEN ENTITY” IN INDIAN COURTS, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (2) OF 2026, PG. 353-362, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.

ABSTRACT

Historically, Indian criminal jurisprudence has marginalized victims, relegating them to the status of mere witnesses within an offender-centric, retributive framework under the colonial Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). This research paper examines the profound paradigm shift towards a restorative, victim-centric model codified in the newly enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. By analysing statutory innovations such as Community Service and refined Plea-Bargaining timelines, the paper benchmarks these domestic reforms against international standards, specifically the 1985 UN Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime. To contextualize this shift within indigenous philosophy, the paper introduces a novel theoretical lens using Amartya Sen’s distinction between Niti (institutional propriety) and Nyaya (realized justice). It argues that while legislative updates fulfill Niti, achieving true Nyaya requires “plus-legal” interventions like the SPRUHA scheme to support the holistic rehabilitation of victims. Finally, to address the inherent subjectivity in evaluating victim trauma, the paper proposes a futuristic framework integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to objectively assess Victim Impact Statements (VIS), thereby modernizing the judicial assessment of psychological harm while maintaining rigorous ethical safeguards against algorithmic bias.

Keywords: Victim-Centric Justice, Restorative Justice, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Niti and Nyaya.