Criminal Victimization & Justice Administration in India


Aakash Keshari
The author is a Law Student, Lloyd Law College, Noida.

Until 1970s the victims of a crime were an overlooked element in the criminal equity framework. The state of mind started to change as the train of victimology[1] made its mark. The previous couple of decades have seen a transformation in the way society bargains with victims of crime. Numerous nations have now perceived the need to give administrations to victims to enable them to recoup from the effects of crime and help them in their dealings with the criminal equity framework. Be that as it may, in India, there has not been any significant change in the position of victims in the criminal equity framework. In this essay, I will look at the position of victims of crime in India also, the criminal equity framework.
Over the globe in different nations, victims of crime are ensured, helped, restored and repaid by suitable laws and acts. In any case in India the victims of crime doing assume just an inconsequential part in the criminal equity process. In later times, among the numerous changes peddled for progressing the criminal equity organization. Victim introduction incorporates more prominent regard and thought towards victims and their rights in the investigative and arraignment process, arrangements for more prominent decisions to victims in trail and attitude of the denounced, and a plan of reparation/remuneration especially for victims of tribal violations.[2] In spite of the fact that there are a few arrangements under the Indian Constitution and a few segments in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973[3] to secure the rights of the victims and for giving remuneration, the criminal courts at the lower level in India have disregarded those arrangements for quite a while and not used them amid their condemning procedures. In any case, it is delighting to watch that few judgements in both High courts and the Supreme Courts over the most recent two decades or so have come to protect the victims of not just customary violations where the off ender is another national yet in addition in situations where the exploitation has been caused by the instrumentalities of the state itself. What’s more to the current arrangements under the Indian Criminal laws, a significant significance was given in the report of the committee on Reforms of Criminal Equity System, headed by Justice V.S. Malimath on the need to give “equity to victims of crime”.[4] Under these conditions, the essay incorporates a review of the criminal exploitation and the present legitimate arrangements which are accessible to ensure the victims of crime in India.
Crime influences the life of the people and casualty's families. It causes genuine physical and mental wounds to the casualty and casualty's family. Now and again because of the outcomes of the crime casualty endure budgetary misfortune. They feel separated from the general public and need to live alone. For instance a casualty dependably feel reluctant to stroll into dimness alone than a non-casualty individual. They dread of what occurred with him, which dependably happened to be a dynamic on his way to advance or begin another excursion. His past dependably reminds him what occur with him.

Constitutional Law of India and Victims of Crime
The Indian Constitution has several provisions which endorse the principle of victim compensation. The constellation of clauses dealing with the Fundamental Rights (Part III)[5] and Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV)[6] established the framework for another social request in which equity, social and financial, would flower in the national existence of the nation (Article 38)[7]. Article 41[8], which have importance to victimology in a more extensive point of view, orders, bury alia, that the state should make effective arrangement for "securing open help with instances of disablement and in different instances of undeserved need". Without a doubt, victims of crime and other exploited individuals swim into the safe house of Article 41 of constitution of India. Article 51-A[9]makes it a principal obligation of each national of India "to ensure what's more, enhance the regular habitat … and to have empathy for living animals" and "to create humanism". On the off chance that compassionately deciphered what's more, innovatively extended, we find here the protected beginnings of victimology. Further, the assurance against unjustified hardship of life and freedom (Article 21)[10] has in it components committing the state to adjust casualties of criminal savagery.

Provisions in Indian Criminal Laws
The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 has recognized the principle of victim compensation. Section 250[11] of CrPCauthorizes magistrates to direct complainants or informants to pay compensation to people accused by them without reasonable cause. Again, Section 358[12] of CrPC empowers the court to order a person to pay compensation to another person for causing a police officer to arrest such other person wrongfully. Finally, Section 357[13] enables the court imposing a sentence in a criminal proceeding to grant compensation to the victim and order the payment of costs of the prosecution. However, this is on the discretion of the sentencing court and is to be paid out of the fine recovered. Though the principle underlying Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is very much the same sought to be achieved by the UN Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime, its scope is extremely limited as:
1. The section applies only when the accused is convicted;
2. It is subject to recovery of fine from the accused when fine is part of the sentence;
3. When fine is not imposed as part of the sentence, the magistrate may order any amount to be paid by way of compensation for any loss or injury by reason of the act for which the accused person has been so sentenced (Sec. 357(3))[14]; and
 4. In awarding the compensation, the magistrate is to consider the capacity of the accused to pay.

There are also certain other laws to care for and protect special categories of victims in India, such as:
A.    The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005[15]: This Act aims to provide for more effective protection of the rights of women guaranteed under the Constitution. The definition of (domestic violence)[16] is wide enough to include physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse. The unique feature of the Act is that it prohibits denying the victim “continued access to resources or facilities which the aggrieved person (victim) is entitled to use or enjoy by virtue of the domestic relationship, including access to the shared household”.
B.     The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007[17]: This is also an innovative law aiming to protect elders and prevent elder abuse and victimization, which is a growing problem in many countries, including India. Under this law, an obligation is created of the children or adult legal heirs to maintain their parents, or senior citizens above the age of 60 years who are unable to maintain themselves out of their own earnings, to enable them to lead a normal life. If children or legal heirs neglect or refuse to maintain the senior citizen, the Tribunal can pass an order asking the children or legal heirs to make a monthly allowance for their maintenance.
C.    The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)[18]: This Commission was set up in March 2007 and its mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child[19] (see at Government of India, 2009).
D.    Prevention of Caste-Based Victimization and Protection for Victims:The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989[20]: This is an act to prevent atrocities against the members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Under this Act, compensation to victims is mandatory, besides several other reliefs depending on the type of atrocity. The victims are entitled to receive monetary compensation ranging from Rs. 25,000 to 200,000 depending on the gravity of the offence.

CONCLUSION:
There is a need to make our streets safer and our criminal justice fairer - our homeland more secure, our world more peaceful and sustainable for the next generation. Each state has an instrument known as criminal justice Administration which includes for the most part three organs, the police, the legal and the jail. The police is essential and outskirts organization of the Criminal Justice Administration. The most critical perspective which is of great worry for each general public, in the present circumstances, is human rights viz-a-viz police and criminal equity framework. It is the assurance of these rights which turns into a sole target of any Criminal Justice System. It not just ruptures the trust of the general population into the framework however it like wise turns out to be a mishap to an equitable set up of our nation.
In the current decade of victimological research, there is a substantial interest in the study of impact of crime on victims and ways to assist them. Assistance to victims of crime is of great significance because victims have suffered irreparable damages and harm as a result of crime. The problems of crime victims and the impact of crime on them is varied and complex. Therefore, the agencies of the criminal justice system should be receptive to the needs of the victims of crime and address their issues sincerely and empathetically.
The need of change in the Criminal Justice System and the police in India and in a general sense the police laws, has for quite some time been perceived.Before freedom additionally, different National Police Commission Reports came up, to build up a powerful police framework. The first was in 1860 and last one of every 1902. After autonomy, a similar pilgrim Model of Policing was embraced. Furthermore, no genuine thought was given to transform it to make it important for a free and majority rule India.
It should be the strategy of criminal equity to center around the casualty of wrongdoing as much as the denounced, along these lines reestablishing an adjust in criminal technique between the offender, victim and society. Aside from perceiving the privilege of the victim to implead themselves in criminal legal procedures, an expedient and viable plan of pay to victim of in any event genuine violations in the first place, ought to be executed, independent of the result of such procedures. For this, a Victim Pay Fund must be founded, to be controlled through the Legal Administrations Authorities.


[1]<http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/bitstream/10603/132448/10/10_chapter%202.pdf>
[2](Madhava Menon), 2004: 362- 363
[3]<https://www.oecd.org/site/adboecdanti-corruptioninitiative/46814340.pdf>
[4]<http://www.wbja.nic.in/wbja_adm/files/Repot%20by%20Committee%20on%20Reforms%20of%20Criminal%20Justice%20System,%20Government%20of%20India%20by%20Chairman%20Dr.%20Justice%20V.S.%20Malimath.pdf>
[5]<http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/Const.Pock%202Pg.Rom8Fsss(6).pdf>
[6]<http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/Const.Pock%202Pg.Rom8Fsss(7).pdf>
[7]Article 38 of Constitution of India: {State to secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the people} 
[8]Article 41 of Constitution of India: Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases
[9]Article 51-A of Constitution of India: Fundamental duties It shall be the duty of every citizen of India (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the national Flag and the National Anthem;
[10]Article 21 of Constitution of India:  Protection Of Life And Personal Liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.
[11]Section 250 of CrPC:Compensation for accusation without reasonable cause.
[12]Section 358 of CrPC: Compensation to persons groundlessly arrested.
[13]Section 357 of CrPC: Order to pay compensation.
[14]Section 357 (3) of CrPC:  When a Court imposes a sentence, of which fine does not form a part, the Court may, when passing judgment, order the accused person to pay, by way of compensation, such amount as may be specified in the order to the person who has suffered any loss or injury by reason of the act for which the accused person has been so sentenced.
[15] http://ncw.nic.in/acts/TheProtectionofWomenfromDomesticViolenceAct2005.pdf
[16]Section 3 of Protection of women from domestic violence act, 2005:  Definition of domestic violence.—For the purposes of this Act, any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence
<http://ncw.nic.in/acts/TheProtectionofWomenfromDomesticViolenceAct2005.pdf>
[17]<http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/PACT/2007/The%20Maintenance%20and%20Welfare%20of%20Parents%20and%20Senior%20Citizens%20Act,%202007.pdf>
[18]<http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/PACT/2006/The%20Commissions%20for%20Protection%20of%20Child%20Rights%20Act,%202005.pdf>
[19]<https://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf>
[20]<http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/PACT/1989/The%20Scheduled%20Castes%20And%20the%20Scheduled%20Tribes%20%20(Prevention%20of%20Atrocities)%20Act,%201989.pdf>

Comments