Acting Chief Justice-cum-Executive Chairman, Jharkhand State legal Services Authority (JHAlSA), D N Patel has said that the State Government should assess the impact of the new victim compensation policy, inked by National legal Services Authority (NAlSA) in consultation with the Centre, and make the budgetary provisions accordingly.
The scheme, unveiled a couple of days back, has been prepared following a directive from the Supreme Court that sought ‘model rules’ to provide succour to women victims.
The new scheme, binding on all states, has fixed the minimum as well as maximum amount to be given to the victims of various heinous crimes, including sexual assault, acid attack, murder, and miscarriage due to assault.
Justice Patel, who had got implemented this dormant process of law in January 2016 in the State, said that the Jharkhand government, particularly Chief Minister Raghubar Das has been generous in sanctioning funds for the relief policy, but its implementation would now involve a huge amount and the court will have to order at least the minimum amount mandatorily in every case.
The State Government has sanctioned Rs 15 crore under the Scheme during the current fiscal.
Maintaining that it is a positive development of legal process coming to the aid to victims, particularly women, Justice Patel said we have already backlog of cases where several District legal Services Authorities (DlSAs) are waiting for the fund from the government to disburse to victims.
He said that the government should now study the trend of filing the cases and work out the figure every year. “Since there are a huge number of criminal cases, they should match with the budgetary provisions,” he added.
He, however, said that there is a flip side to it too. “There might be some fake criminal cases. So, the public prosecutor has to be alert in identifying such cases with the help of technology so that the hard earned public money does not go in hands of bogus victims. Also, the court has to do a balancing act and apply its mind so that a genuine victim gets the relief and fake ones are weeded out,” he added.
Justice Patel said that money should not be a problem as the Centre has allocated a huge fund to women victims under Central Victim Welfare Fund Scheme, popularly known as Nirbhaya fund, provided the State machinery sends the utilization certificate promptly for reimbursement. “I don’t know whether the Jharkhand Government has got funds reimbursed under Nirbhaya scheme or not,” he quipped.
This fund is a central scheme initiated after the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in New Delhi on December 16, 2012. It is a non-lapsable corpus fund.
“Besides, the law making authorities should also provide for some incentives to the witnesses to stop them from turning hostile and take the cases to their logical conclusion,” he pointed out.
As per the new scheme, a minimum Rs 5 lakh is to be paid in case of loss of life or gang rape of a victim and maximum has been fixed at Rs 10 lakh.
Under the Jharkhand Government policy, the minimum amount for rape victims is Rs 3 lakh.
A minimum amount of Rs 4 lakh is to be paid in case of rape or unnatural sexual assault. For the loss of any limb or part of the body resulting in 80 percent of permanent disability, Rs 2 lakh is to be given and Rs 2 lakh in case of grievous physical injury.