Justice To Victims Of Crime In India: An Appraisal

Abstract

Victims of crime are integral to and important players in the criminal justice system both as a complainant and as a witness for the prosecution. A victim of crime is a person who sets the criminal justice process in motion. Although the justice system largely counts on the victim, the law of crimes is primarily concerned with the offender and his rights ignoring those of the victim. As the government assumes responsibility of enforcing justice, the victim is left with ineffective remedies. This paper explores that there is no systematic and uniform law defining the status and the rights of victims in the legal system, nor clear guidelines for the criminal justice agencies to deal with and address their grievances. The role of a victim in the current criminal justice process is limited to that of a witness for the prosecution even though he is one who has suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of his fundament rights as a result of the crime. Consequently, victims are deemed to be an object and employed by criminal justice agencies to advance the prosecution case. The modern State has pushed the victim, who was once entitled to lay charges against the perpetrator, out of the justice process and made him powerless. Such an absence of an important and defined role for victim in prosecuting the offender is often the root of growing discontent among the victims of crime with common-law system of justice and a major source of secondary victimization as well. Victims of crime are persons having rights and privileges. Victims’ rights are human rights. Human rights are basic rights which are inherent in a person by virtue of his birth and without which he would not be able to develop to his full potential. A crime is deemed to be an offence against the society and therefore, constitutes a violation of victims’ rights as well as an act against the state. The author argues that being an individual with rights and dignity, a victim of crime requires recognition as a person before the law.