R.V. Kelkar's Lectures On CRIMINAL PROCEDURE including Probation and Juvenile Justice

The law of criminal procedure is intended to provide a mechanism for the enforcement of criminal law. Without proper procedural law,
the substantive criminal law which defines offences and provides pun- ishments for them, would be almost worthless. Because, in the absence of an enforcement machinery, the threat of punishment held out to the law- breakers by the substantive criminal law would remain empty in practice. Empty threats do not deter, and without deterrent effect, the law of crimes would have hardly any meaning or justification. If "thieves" and "murderers" are not detected, prosecuted, and punished, what is the use of meticulously defining the offences of "theft" and "murder" and prescribing "deterrent" punishments for them?
Thus, the law of criminal procedure is meant to be complementary to criminal law and has been designed to ensure the process of its admin- istration. In view of this objective, the law of criminal procedure creates the necessary machinery for the detection of crime, arrest of suspected criminals, collection of evidence, determination of guilt or innocence of the suspected person, and the imposition of proper punishment on the guilty person. The law of criminal procedure also aims at provid- ing safeguard against possible harms and violation of human rights of innocent persons in its process of sifting criminals from non-criminals. It further attempts to strike a just balance between the need to give discre- tionary powers to the functionaries under the Code to make the investi- gative and adjudicatory processes strong and efective, and the need for controlling the probable misuse or abuse of these powers.