The Supreme Court on Friday directed all States to uniformly implement a Victim Compensation Scheme prepared by the National legal Services Authority (NAlSA) which prescribes grant of a maximum compensation of Rs 10 lakh for a victim of gangrape and Rs 8 lakh for victim of acid attack. The money will be disbursed by the district and State legal services authority out of the Nirbhaya Funds set apart for rehabilitation of sexual assault victims by the Central Government.
A Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta approved the ‘Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes-2018’ prepared by NAlSA and made it applicable to all States. The need was felt to devise a scheme as several states had not framed a scheme for compensating victims under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code. Even the amount of compensation differed from Rs 10000 to Rs 10 lakh (paid by Goa Government).
As per the scheme, the gangrape victims will be entitled to a maximum compensation of Rs 10 lakh and in case of rape or unnatural sexual assault, the victim would get a minimum of Rs 4 lakh that may extend to Rs 7 lakh as well. The court clarified that the States were free to award more compensation than the prescribed amount. Interestingly, where a victim is entitled to compensation under multiple heads such as gangrape and loss of life on account of rape, the compensation will be cumulative under both heads.
In acid attack cases, if the injury is more than 50 per cent, a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh could be given while the maximum could go up to Rs 8 lakh. In case of miscarriage or loss of foetus, the victim would get Rs 2 to Rs 3 lakh. The compensation will be payable to the victim or their kin on production of the complaint and a medical certificate at the nearest district or State legal service authority.
Till date, the Centre has disbursed Rs 920 crore under the Nirbhaya Fund which is grossly underutilised. The Court has kept pending the issue of proper utilisation of Nirbhaya funds which it will consider in July.