Victim compensation

For Delhi State Legal Service Authority

Vidhika Prasad
  Victim compensation is a direct financial reimbursement to a
victim for an expense that resulted from a crime, such as
What is Victim medical costs or lost wages. Each state has a crime victim
Compensation? compensation program that allocates funds to survivors of
sexual assault and other violent crimes.
  Victim Centric Jurisprudence has brought about a shift in the
paradigm of justice, putting obligation on the State, that in

Victim addition to ensuring successful prosecution, it is required to

support the victims and their dependents for their
Compensation rehabilitation. To commemorate the same, instead of being

Jurisprudence limiting itself just to monetary compensation, Legislature and

Courts of various countries have adopted laws, policies and
Schemes for “restitution and reparation” of the victims.
  Criminal Justice System imposes a positive, important and dominant obligation on the State,
to protect its citizens from any harm to their person or property.

 State is obligated with a responsibility to deprive individuals of the power to take law into their
hands in order to commit crime against fellow citizens.

 This proposition of State responsibility puts the blame of crime, on the State of having failed to
protect its subjects against crime.

Development of  “Grant of compensation to the victims” of crime, is thus a necessary consequence of such
failure.

Victim  Even under ordinary circumstances, the State is supposed to assist the vulnerable and
marginalized, as a matter of public policy.

Compensation
Jurisprudence  The victim protection jurisprudence developed in United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA) 1985 by adopting the Declaration of The Basic Principles of
Justice for The Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, which was ratified by a
substantial number of countries including India, was a landmark in boosting the
pro-victim movement.
Victim Compensation in India
Tracing the developments
 Section 357 was introduced in Code of Criminal Procedure
vide Code of Criminal Procedure Bill of 1970, with the object
and intent to provide relief to the victims of crime.

41st Report of Besides, Section 357 of Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 5 of

Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 is there on the statute book, as
Law Commission the Statutory Commands for awarding compensation to the
of India victims of crime.

(legal provisions) Keeping pace with the change and the resultant obligation on
Legislature, has seen the advent of Section 357A in Code of
Criminal Procedure, by way of Code of Criminal Procedure
(Amendment) Act, 2008
  The 154th Law Commission of India made radical
recommendations on the aspects of compulsory justice through
a victim compensation scheme. Justice Malimath Committee
20037 made a series of recommendations with respect to victim
of crime, particularly recommended to be enacted as a separate
legislation to deal with all the issues pertaining to Victims of

The 154th Law crime.

 Second Administrative Reforms Commission in 5 th Report on
Commission of Public Order, 2007 and Law Commission of India’s 226th Report
India on “Compensation to the Victims” 2010 have recommended
several measures for victims’ empowerment and rehabilitation.
 There is no single law that deals with compensation to the
victims of crime and abuse of power, but as a solace, in a number
of cases, the Supreme Court has laid down sound guidelines
with regard to assessment of just compensation to be paid to
various types of victims.
  The Supreme Court of India in has interpreted right to
compensation as an integral part of Article 21 of the
Constitution.
In several cases the apex court has repeated its order, making
compensation an integral aspect of right to life.
1. 1. Rudal Sah v. State of Bihar, 1983;
Constitutional 2. 2. Bhim Singh v. State of Jammu & Kashmir, 1985;
Provisions 3. 3. Dr. Jacob George v. State of Kerala, 1994;

4. 4. Manju Bhatia v. N.D.M.C. A.I.R 1998 S.C 223, 1998;

5. 5.Paschim Bangal Khet Mazdoor Samity v. State of West Bengal & Ors., 1996;

6. 6. People’s Union for Democratic Rights Thru. Its Secy. v. Police Commissioner, Delhi
Police Headquarters,

7. 7. PUDR v. State of Bihar, 1987.))

  In 2009, the central government gave directions to every
State to prepare a scheme which has to be in agreement
with the canters scheme for victim compensation. The
primary purpose of the scheme is to provide funds for the
purpose of compensation to the victim or his dependents who
have suffered loss or injury as a result of the crime and who
Victim require rehabilitation.

Compensation  Under the scheme when an application for compensation is made to

the court by victim and the court if find that victim is worthy of
Schemes compensation or any interim compensation during the proceedings as
the case may be, it may make recommendation to the District, or State
Legal service Authority, and the quantum of compensation and award
of compensation shall be decided and made respectively by the
authority under the scheme made by State government in coordination
with central government.
  Despite the absence of any special legislation to render justice
to victims in India, the Supreme Court has taken a proactive
role and resorted to affirmative action to protect the rights of
victims of crime and abuse of power. The court has adopted the
concept of restorative justice and awarded compensation or

Compensatory restitution or enhanced the amount of compensation to victims,

beginning from the 1980s.
Jurisprudence
evolved by the  The court has adopted the concept of restorative justice and

Judiciary awarded compensation or restitution or enhanced the amount

of compensation to victims, beginning from the 1980s.
 Maru Ram v. Union of India, A.I.R 1980 S.C.
2147.

 The Apex Court has observed that while

considering the problem of penology the
Court should not overlook the plight of
victimology and the suffering of the people
who die, suffer or are maimed at the hands of
the criminals
 State of Gujarat v. High Court of Gujarat
(1998)7 S.C.C. 392

 The Apex Court in the present case has

observed that in our effort to look after and
protect the human rights of the accused or
human rights of the convict we cannot forget
the victim or his family in case of his death or
who is otherwise incapacitated to earn his
livelihood because of the crime committed by
an offender
 Justice for Rape  the Supreme Court held that if the court trying an offence of rape
has jurisdiction to award compensation at the final stage, the
Victims – Court also has the right to award interim compensation.

Guidelines for  The court, having satisfied the prima facie culpability of the
accused, ordered him to pay a sum of Rs.1000 every month to the

Victim Assistance victim as interim compensation along with arrears of

compensation from the date of the complaint.

in Bodhisattwa  It is a landmark case in which the Supreme Court issued a set of

guidelines to help indigenous rape victims who cannot afford
Gautam v. Subhra legal, medical and psychological services, in accordance with the

Chakraborty Principles of UN Declaration of Justice for Victims of Crime and

Abuse of Power, 1985:
 Palaniappa Gounder v. State of Tamil Nadu
 The first landmark judgment where compensation to the victim ordered
by the Madras High Court and upheld with some modifications by the
Supreme Court of India was Palaniappa Gounder v. State of Tamil Nadu.
 In this case, the High Court after commuting the sentence of death on the
accused to one of life imprisonment, imposed a fi ne of Rs.20,000 on the
appellant and directed that out of the fine, a sum of Rs.15,000 should be
paid to the son and daughters of the deceased under Section 357 (1) (c) of
the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
 The Supreme Court while examining the special leave petition of the
appellant observed that there can be no doubt that for the offence of
murder, courts have the power to impose a sentence of fi ne under Section
302 of the IPC but the High Court has put the “cart before the horse” in
leaving the propriety of fine to depend upon the amount of compensation
 Sarwan Singh v. State of Punjab

 In this case, the Supreme Court not only reiterated its previous
standpoint but also laid down, in an exhaustive manner, points to be
taken into account while imposing fine or compensation.

 The Honourable Court observed that while awarding compensation, it

is necessary for the court to decide whether the case is fit enough to
award compensation.

 If the case is found fit for compensation, then the capacity of the
accused to pay the fixed amount has to be determined.
  The paradigm shift towards enhancing the
compensation was adopted by the court to provide solace
to the victim and to service social justice in the society.

Ankush Shiwaji  Thus, in Ankush Shiwaji Gaikwad v. The State of

Maharashtra, it was held that, the legislative intent of the
Gaikwad v. The provisions relating to victim compensation was to reassure
the victim that he is not a forgotten party in the criminal
State of justice system.

Maharashtra25  Further, a landmark decision of the Court in the case of

Suresh v. State of Haryana, awarded the victim with an
interim compensation and the State was directed pay an
amount of Rs.10 lakhs to the family of the victims who
had been abducted and murdered.
Role and responsibility
of Delhi State Legal
Service Authority
(DSLSA)
Delhi State Legal Services Authority, being the
Nodal Agency and Custodian of “Victim
Compensation Fund” is under an obligation to
ensure that, the funds are utilized in the best interest
of the victim to alleviate the sufferings sustained by
the victim, owing to the crime and are not frittered
away by unscrupulous persons, levelling false and
vexatious accusations only for the purposes of
getting compensation.
  The victim compensation in India is still the vanishing point of our
criminal law. The remedies currently available under the law
are limited, fragmented, uncoordinated and reactive.
Conclusion
 This is the lacunae in the system, which must be remedied by
Comprehensive Law by the legislature.
 Nevertheless the criminal justice system has changed its ambit and the
legislatures and judges have been playing a significant role in the
expansion of the rights of victims of crime in the criminal justice
administration of the country, yet the victims have not received their due
concern and their rights have not been given their due weightage.
 Victims have few legal rights to be informed, present and heard within the
criminal justice system.
 But regrettably, victims do not have to be notified of court proceedings or
of the arrest or release of the defendant, they have no right to attend the
trial or other proceedings, and they have no right to make a statement
to the court at sentencing or at other hearings.
 Further, the coordination between the various limbs of justice i.e. the
courts, the police, the DLSA and the State Legal Services Authority
must be streamlined. Each instrument must inform and assist the victim in
realizing compensation.