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>
[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.
[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
Post a Comment