Friday 17 Jul, Supreme court declined the petition seeking general rule for compensation to the victim of wrongful prosecution. The plea seeking for compensation, referring various reports and the ICCPR.
The plea was presented before the bench of Justice U U Lalit, Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar and Justice Vineet Saran. The bench said that compensation can be decided at the court hearing and general rules cannot be formulated. The pleas for compensation was accordingly dismissed as withdrawn.
“a large number of under trials (more than the number of convicts) year after year and their long detention period shows that under trial spent a substantial period of time awaiting trials/judicial determination of their case. This delay and waiting becomes graver miscarriage of justice when the person in wrongfully accused and is incarcerated pending trials/proceedings, which he should not have been subjected to in the first place”, the petition states.
The petitioner stated in his petition that “wrongful prosecution” is a violation of fundamental rights and further stated that claiming compensation is a constitutional remedy.
“Claim for compensation is a Constitutional remedy under Article 32 or 226, and the said defence is not available against the same.”
The petitioner also stated in the petition that, there is no legal plan against wrongful prosecution, while the victim has spent prime period of life in prison.
“They are left with their devices without any hope of rehabilitation in the society as the prime period of their life has been spent in jail.”
The petition also states that compensation and rehabilitation of the victims is the duty of the state.
“violation of his basic Fundamental Rights by keeping him behind the bars for years and years until the person is finally acquitted. It is the duty of the state to compensate the acquitted person for the loss of time, mental suffering and the harm caused his reputation.”
Its is also stated in petition that, there are almost seven reports and several recommendations by the Law Commission of India for such issues. The plea also referred the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics for “Prisoners Statistics India” (PSI) of year 2015, which shows that 82,585 prisoners were acquitted and 23,442 prisoners were released in appeal.