SC: "State is the custodian of the social interests of the community at large."

The system of administration of criminal justice in India is well defined by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, in the matters of Thakur Ram and Others v/s The State of Bihar, while examining the right of a third party to invoke the revisional jurisdiction under the Code of 1898. The Apex Court had observed as under : “The criminal law is not to be used as an instrument of wrecking private vengeance by an aggrieved party against the person who, according to that party, had caused injury to it. Barring a few exceptions, in criminal matters the party who is treated as the aggrieved party is the State which is the custodian of the social interests of the community at large and so it is for the State to take all the steps necessary for bringing the person who has acted against the social interests of the community to book.”