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AN ANALYSIS OF VICTIM COMPENSATION SCHEME

Written by Harshit Raghuwanshi

3rd Year B.Com. LL.B. Student, Institute of Law Nirma University

INTRODUCTION

India is country where the government is chosen by the people of India. The government work
in the parliament form where the process of giving remedy of compensation, justice is decided
by the judiciary. But these rights to the judiciary are given by the constitution, so to provide a
right justice to the victims, bit-by-bit the legislature and the judiciary is originating the essential
precepts by which compensation could be paid to the Victims of Crimes (hereinafter ‘V.O.C.’).

As for the same, the legislature on the recommendation of the judiciary as introduced a scheme,
Victim Compensation Scheme (herein after “V.C.S.”) under Criminal Procedure Code of 1973,
Section 357-A1 by amending Criminal Procedure Code of 1973 (hereinafter Cr.P.C.) in 2009.
This scheme helps the judiciary to render the compensation to the V.O.C.

The prime focus of this informative research paper would be to analyze the V.C.S. and its
leading cases, as well as the history of compensation, the position prior and post to the
amendment, and analysis of Section 357-A of Cr.P.C.

1
CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (AMENDMENT) ACT 2008

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THE CONCEPT OF THE COMPENSATION

Civil and Criminal Law

The process for forming any law there are some of the basic steps which are to be taken, the
law present in the today’s era have some type of norms; norms are the basic rules which a
particular society or community have to follow. The law we have may be come from grunt
norm or other norms. Similarly, for the concept of victims’ compensation, civil and criminal
law has a history in the form of grunt norm, the concept can be historically, seen in the 12th
and 13th centuries because during that era a major distinction was made between several kinds
of wrongs, i.e., private and public wrong.2 Putting light on private wrong, are the wrong were
the injury is suffered by an individual specifically, in past the culprit was called for compensate
the victim. Nonetheless, in the public wrong the law-breaking affects the public on the loose,
here the state aimed to remit upon itself to penalize the criminated.

Several vindications were used for the compensation, such as: welfare for the dupes, symbolic
social acknowledgement for the dupe’s agony, and discouragement effects on the wrongdoer
likewise the reformative effects in the wrongdoer as the compensating has an "intrinsically
moral value of its own".3

To have a look on the earliest acknowledgement to submit compensation for victims of crime,
take the content of the Hammurabi code of ancient Babylonian, which pinned down that:

“If a man has committed robbery and is caught, that man shall be put to death. If the robber
is not caught, the man who has been robbed shall formally declare what he has lost . . . and
the city . . . shall replace whatever he has lost for him. If it is the life of the owner that is lost,

2
K.D. Gaur, Justice to Victims of Crime: A Human Rights Approach, in Criminal Justice: A Human Rights
Perspective of The Criminal Justice Process in India 350, 351 (2004).
3
Law Commission of India, One Hundred and Fifty Fourth Report on The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
(1996), at 57.

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the city or the mayor shall pay one maneh of silver to his kinsfolk.”45

This above acknowledgement was well recognized by the England in the Anglo-Saxon time
period of the 7th century. Similarly the Kentish Laws of Ethelbert carried pinned down amounts
of compensation for vast number of law-breaking arraying from murder to adultery.6 It was
also seen that when the era of early Common Law of Middle England, if a provider of a family
i.e., the man was murdered, the dupes of the family of that man was entitles to get compensation
of four ponds.7 As the time passes on the criminal justice system was broke down from the
civil wrongs, on seeing the reason of breaking down into two different wrongs was because of
the growing of power and royalty among the people, which can be otherwise seen in growth of
Royal and Ecclesiastical power (power associated with Christian church).8 During this time
duration there were several changes between the criminal law and the law of torts, law-breaking
such as murder, robbery and rape were no more related with the context of torts which further
leads to the not giving compensation to those victims whose come under these category but
were to be sanctioned as considering these law-breaking as public wrong rather than the harm
to an individual.9 This in the larger area vanish the role of state compensation and left on the
state of punishment to the one who has done harm to the victim as individual or as king i.e.,
the ruler of the country.10

But later on, this distinguish between the criminal and tort was no more given any enhancement
because of the utilitarianism principle of Jeremy Bentham, as he considered that on account of
social contract among the state and the citizen that whenever any wrong or loss is done to the
property or person of V.O.C. they must get compensation. As the main aim of the government

4
Marlene A. Young, Meeting Victim Needs: What is the Role of Victim Compensation in Recovery? The
National Centre For Victims of Crime (May, 2003)), Available at
http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/AGP.Net/Components/documentViewer/Download.aspxnz?DocumentID=32597
(Last updated March, 01, 2016)
5
Gerhard O. W. Mueller, Compensation for Victims of Crime: Thought before Action, 50MINN. L. REV. 213
(1965).
6
Dr. Kaushal Kishor Bajpai, The History of Compensation of the Victims of Crime, AIR WEB WORLD,
Available at http://airwebworld.com/articles/index.php?article=1058 (Last updated March, 01, 2016)
7
Young, Supra Note 4, at 2.
8
Bajpai, Supra Note 5.
9
Bajpai, Supra Note 5.
10
Supra Note 3.

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of the country is depend on the maxim "Salus Populio Siprema Lex Esto 11" so, if the harm
leads to the person or his/her property then the state should compensate him/her to overcome
the damage suffered by him/her.

Further the justification of Bentham was not fully accepted as it will implicate the
compensation of all and sundry dupes of the crime to full degree of legal injuries they endured.
In the latter half of the century this construct of state compensation was discoursed at fifth
International Prison Congress. Leading to this, British assemble a legal program in 1964, which
was organized by the criminal injuries compensation board and the arsenals were fixed by the
parliament yearly.12

Moving forward which proper implementation of legal state compensation, the California was
the first state which sanctioned the compensation to be given to V.O.C. on a tariff bases in
1965.13 Putting further enactment, the major step was taken up by the united nation in its
Declaration of Basic Principle of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power of 1985,
which acknowledges four basic rights and claims of victims: (a) Access to justice and fair
treatment, (b) Right to restitution, (c) Personal assistance and support services, and (d)
Compensation.14 The actual framework work was discerned by the international community.
Though the help of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.15

In India, the air of compensating the V.O.C. was coined up by the Maharashtra NGO by the
yojana known as "Manodhairya yojana" in which the NGO was use to give amounts of money
to overcome of the misfortune or the damages they face in their life. Further this Manodhairya
yojana was accepted by the Maharashtra Government and they launched the 'Manodhairya'
scheme for the victims of crime. Under this scheme state was supposed to provide
compensation between Rs 2 and 3 lakhs to the subsisted. The subsisted will not only receive

11
Maxim, Salus Populio Siprema Lex Esto, available at http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/salus%20populi%20suprema%20lex%20esto (Last updated March, 02, 2016)
12
Supra Note 3.
13
Supra Note 3.
14
It states that when compensation is not fully available from the offender or other sources, the State should
provide it at least in violent crimes that result in serious bodily injury, for which a national fund should be
established.
15
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, U.N. Doc.A/ RES/217(III) (Dec. 10, 1948).

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the medical treatment but also a certain amount to overcome the misfortune in his/her life.

Regardless of these coming forth sheer of compensation stays subsidiary to the inflicting
punishment role of the state. Justice V.N. Krishna Iyer fore grounded the extended apathy of
the criminal justice system:

“It is the weakness of our jurisprudence that victims of crime and the distress of the dependents
of the victim do not attract the attention of law. In fact, victim reparation is still the vanishing
point of our criminal law. This is the deficiency in the system, which must be rectified by the
legislature”.16

On this foreground by Justice V.N. Krishna Iyer, the legislature worked on the issue of
compensating the V.O.C. in India, and come out with an amendment in the Cr.P.C under
Section 357 of it and inserted a Section 357-A which states about the Victim
Compensation Scheme.17

INDIAN POSITION ANTERIOR TO THE SECTION 357-A OF CR.P.C.

It can be clearly seen from the history, that India was not having and fixed criteria to provide
compensation to the V.O.C., not that event India was not giving any compensation to victims
of crime, as their thinking was on the difference of criminal wrong and civil. but as the years
passes on, government changed the legislature come forward with the Cr.P.C, 1973, which at
on a large area put a glint for compensating victims.18 This format of providing compensation
was come from testimonial of the Law Commission of its 41st Report, 1969, under this
testimonial purvey was wreaked in the favor of V.O.C. under the Section 35719 of Cr.P.C. this
Section states that:

16
Rattan Singh v. State of Punjab, (1979) 4 S.C.C. 719, 721.
17
Supra Note 1.
18
§§ 357, 421 & 431 empower a criminal court, at its discretion, to award compensation to a victim of crime as
well as to recover it and pay it to him.
19
The Code of Criminal Procedure §357, (1973) states about Order to Give Compensation.

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“Court may award compensation to victims of crime at the time of passing of the judgment, if
it considers it appropriate in a particular case, in the interest of justice”.20

Getting for compensation for the V.O.C. under Section 357 of Cr.P.C., which was further
divided into sub-sections, in which compensation will we only procurable when the honorable
court will enforce a fine and the amount of compensation is confined to the amount of fine.
This confined amount which was supposed to be given was entailed under the Section 357(1),
which encourage the compensation and lays down four bases for bringing down a fine.
Nevertheless, under Section 357(3) courts are given rights to give compensation to person for
whom they have suffered injury or harm, even those kinds of cases in which the right of getting
compensation does not arise. Even the judges have power of giving compensation but it is not
decided in a specific manner that what amount of compensation must be given to person.
number of time court has provided compensation on the bases of the facts and the conditions
of the case. This can be easily seen from the case Hari Krishna & State of Haryana v. Sukhbir
Singh21 were the supreme court addressed all court to liberally understand the facts of the cases
and mainly on those kind cases where the criminated is freed on warning, liberation or where
the both parties agree to compromise.

In the same duration, court also stated that the amount that should be given must be reasonable
and fair enough to overcome the injury.22 As such what is the correct reasonable amount must
be bases on the fact and the situation of the individual case and the victim.23 On using further
this judgment in cases, the court gave reasonable compensation in many cases.

As on seeing that there is no proper background to give compensation to the victims, it was
fully based on the reasonability which was seen by the court in which the case is presented. To
overcome this default in Indian justice system, Supreme Court of India (hereinafter S.C.)
directed Union Government/State Government to come up with a structured Victim
Compensation Schemes in the case Laxmi v. Union of India.24

20
The Code of Criminal Procedure §357, (1973).
21
Hari Krishna & State of Haryana v. Sukhbir Singh, (1988) 4 S.C.C. 551.
22
Id., ¶ 11.
23
Id., ¶ 11.
24
(2014) 4 SCC 427.

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INDIAN POSITION POST TO THE SECTION 357-A OF CR.P.C.

On direction of S.C., State Government comes with the amendment in 2008 to give structured
V.C.S. under Section 357-A of Cr.P.C., 1973. Section 357-A provides a structured scheme to
compensate V.O.C. further in the same amendment the basic definition of “Victim” was
introduced under Section 2(wa) of Cr.P.C., which states that:

‘Victim’ means a person who has suffered any loss or injury caused by reason of the act or
omission for which the accused person has been charged and the expression ‘victim’ includes
his or her guardian or legal heir”.25

Another amendment was done in the Cr.P.C that inserted a Section 357-A for providing
compensation to V.O.C. i.e. Victim Compensation Scheme for plying arsenals to the victims
or his/her legal heir or dependents who have endured loss or injury by the crime against them
to get proper requirement like rehabilitation, shelter and medical treatment in the cases like
rape, acid attack, trafficking or other crime bases on mental and reputational harm.

After this amendment, each and every state made its own Victim Compensation scheme, which
has a fixed structure of giving compensation. On further, the New Delhi government has also
passed an order in which Rs. 200 crores were given to rehabilitee the victims of rape, human
trafficking, and acid attack or to woman whose husband or family member are died in cross
border firing. Later on, the following coming cases in future use to give compensation that
were fixed in the Scheme.26 The result of this amendment can be seen in the cases Delhi
Domestic Working Women’s Forum v. Union of India and others27, Ankush Shivaji
Gaikwad v. State of Maharashtra28, and other cases.

25
The Code Of Criminal Procedure §2(wa), (1973).
26
CENTRAL VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND, TIMES OF INDIA, available at
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Central-victim-compensation-fund-set-up-with-Rs-200-
crore/articleshow/49359189.cms (Last updated February, 28, 2016)
27
Delhi Domestic Working Women’s Forum v. Union of India and others 1995 SCC (1)14, JT 1994
(7)183.
28
Ankush Shivaji Gaikwad v. State of Maharashtra (2013) 6 SCC 770.

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Moreover, by the same amendment Section 372 of Cr.P.C. was also amended and due to which
particular rights were provided to the victims to proceed with appeal in the court, under certain
conditions or situations:29

1. Acquittal of criminated,
2. Condemnation for a trivial offence or little legal in nature, and;
3. Not satisfied with the amount of compensation given before.

Before amendment of 2008 in Cr.P.C, this section only deals with the universal rights and as
such rights only to which Cr.P.C states or deal.

PERUSAL OF VICTIM COMPENSATION SCHEME (SECTION 357-A)

As it is mentioned that on the direction of S.C., State Government come forward with this
scheme were each state as its own scheme on the bases of crime related to mental harm to
victim or dependents of the victims. Further this Section is divided into six sub-sections.

Basically, the sub-section (1) of Section 357-A i.e., V.C.S. talks about the formation of scheme
by the state government to give compensation to the V.O.C. or his/her legal representative who
have endured injuries in their life because of the misfortune or a black dream happened against
them and also to give proper rehabilitation if require.

Sub-section (2) talks about the criteria of recompensing on the cornerstones of the sub-section
(1) of Section 357-A, Sub-section (2) states that whenever the judges pass an order to give
compensation to the V.O.C. from District Legal Service Authority (hereinafter D.L.S.A.),
D.L.S.A. should decide the quantum of compensation to be given to the V.O.C. or his/her legal
representative on the bases of the above scheme made under the Sub-section (1) of Section
357-A of Cr.P.C. this is because it is considered that Legal Service Authority member are the
one who can understand the proper quantum amount to be given to the victim.

29
The Code Of Criminal Procedure §372,(1973).

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Before the commencement of Section 357-A, District or Trial court were not allowed to provide
compensation the V.O.C. or the criminated who have been acquitted, but Sub-section (3) of the
Section 357-A states that District court has been authorized to direct the D.L.S.A to provide
the compensation in those cases where the victim as been acquitted and require rehabilitation
to overcome the event which happen in his/her life or in those circumstances in which the
compensation was provided to the victim but it was inadequate to overcome which must be
seen by the Legal Service Authority members.

On moving forward, sub-section (4) of Section 357-A deals with the rights of V.O.C. or his/her
legal representative to ask for the compensation for the injury they faced even where the trail
has not taken place and the wrongdoer is not followed or identified. They can ask the
compensation from the D.L.S.A. this sub-section is most favorable to the V.O.C. to get their
injury forget even in those cases where the wrongdoer in not even convicted or identified.

It is always said that in India, the justice is delayed to year and years pass on, to overcome this
default in providing compensation to the accused under sub-section (5) of Section 357-A it is
given that on the receipt of the application of V.O.C. under Sub-section (4), force D.L.S.A to
do proper and adequate inquiry about the harm to the victim and state a fixed amount of
compensation within the span of two months. The time duration of two month to D.L.S.A.
helps to give justice on time without any delay.

In the same manner, sub-section (6) mention the most important aspect for curing the injury of
the victim is to provide immediate first-aid facility or medical welfare to be proved free of cost
or any other meantime requirement needed to be look appropriate by the D.L.S.A. fit. Mainly
deal with the principle of “alleviating the suffering”30 of the victim. After this principle, the
victim has not to wait for the judgment or trial and can get compensation to cure his/her injury
without any legal process, by just applying to D.L.S.A. to get immediate first-aid or other
medical help.
In the recent case of V.C.S., Manohar Singh v. State Of Rajasthan And Ors31, it was held that
if the criminated is not able to compensate the victim or his/her legal representative then the

30
The Code Of Criminal Procedure §357-A (1),(1973).
31
(2015) 42 SCD 303

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State or District Legal Services Authority will be force to pay the compensation amount to the
victim of crime or his/her dependents on the bases of the particular state V.C.S.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded from the above detailed analysis of V.C.S. or an amendment of 2008, that
it is most important amendment in Cr.P.C. Act of 1973 because it inserted the two important
aspects for victims under Section 2(wa) and Section 357-A. in a simple language Section 2(wa)
deals with the definition of 'Victim' i.e. a person who have suffered misfortune in his/her life.
further Section 357-A deals with the right to compensation for the victims of crime or his/her
dependent by the court or by applying in front of D.L.S.A. it also deals with the fiscal help for
the dupes mainly in those crime as such of rape, child sexual abuse, human trafficking or any
homicide victim. On the other side, the compensation be awarded must be given in the span of
two months without any delay. This scheme helps the victims of such crime to not to wait till
the verdict is passed or the criminated is not identified or traced, but the victim has been
identified so without any trial a victim or dependent can claim compensation to overcome the
adverse misfortune in their life, this can be done by writing an application to the D.L.S.A. for
the recompense. Further in the same context the victim legal representative can claim the
compensation for an immediate first-aid or the medical requirement which a D.L.S.A. suits fit
at that time. Because of this amendment know each state as its own V.C.S. on the bases of this
scheme D.L.S.A. given quantum of compensation on the facts and circumstance of the case or
victim.

The question that can be raised on the Section 357-A may be on the issue of inequality i.e.,
each state as its own compensation which can differ on the economic condition of the state. Let
take schemes of two different states, Delhi and Punjab the compensation amount that are fixed
in scheme are that compensation for Rape victim in Delhi the maximum quantum amount is 3
lakhs whereas the compensation for the same crime the quantum compensation fixed in Punjab
is maximum 2 lakhs. From this example, it can be easily inferred that on the financial or
economic condition of the state the V.C.S differs which may in future lead to inequality issue.

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To make this scheme more effective the government can start a helpline number, in the manner
as to provide rehabilitation to the children the childline-1098 helpline is formed and other
helpline in the same manner. Further on the issue of economic condition of state, to overcome
this condition Charities can be done to provide an appropriate amount of compensation to
victims. Or on the larger context a service centers can be made at local or national level, we
can also get help from the NGO’s in the same manner in Maharashtra were one NGO start
compensating the victim of crime. At last this amendment will help V.O.C. to forget the
misfortune incident in their life and overcome with the injury.

DELHI VICTIM COMPENSATION SCHEME32

In the Delhi victim compensation scheme, the minimum and maximum limits have been
defined.

S.No. Particulars of Loss or Injury Minimum Limit of Maximum Limit of

Compensation Compensation
1 Loss of life Rs.3.00 Lakh Rs.5.00 Lakh
2 Rape Rs.2.00 Lakh Rs.3.00 Lakh
Loss of any Limb or part of
body resulting in 80%
Rs.2.00 Lakh Rs.3.00 Lakh
permanent disability or
3 above.
Loss of any limb or part of
body resulting in above 40%
Rs.1 lakh Rs.1.50 lakh
and below 80% permanent
4 disability.
Loss of any limb or part of
Rs.0.60 lakh Rs.1 lakh
5 body resulting in above 20%

32
Victim Compensation Scheme-Delhi, available at
http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/3ba2ab004a168918a0c4b7054aa9b1b1/New+Microsoft+Office+Word+Do
cument+(4).pdf?MOD=AJPERES&lmod=-287399459 (Last updated March, 03, 2016)

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and below 40% permanent

disability

Loss of any limb or part of

body resulting in below 20% Rs.0.50 lakh Rs.0.50 lakh
6 permanent disability
Victims of human
trafficking, child abuse and Rs.0.50 lakh Rs.0.50 lakh
7 kidnapping
Simple loss or injury to child
Rs.0.10 lakh Rs.0.10 lakh
8 victim
9 Rehabilitation Rs.0.20 lakh Rs.0.20 lakh
10 Victims of Acid Attack
a. In case of disfigurement of
Rs.2.00 lakh Rs.3.00 lakh
face
b. Other cases of injury Rs.0.50 lakh Rs.0.50 lakh

By the reference table, it is clear that how much compensation is to be paid according to the
Delhi compensation scheme.33

33
Ibid

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