NALSA to formulate framework for compensation in sexual offences, acid attack cases

The Supreme Court's division bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) to appoint a panel of 4 to 5 members who will formulate a model framework for victim compensation in cases of sexual offences and acid attacks. A PIL was filed seeking formulation of guideline for the safety of women in public transport and public places, in December 2012, after the Nirbhaya gang-rape incident. The PIL is clubbed with five related writ petitions seeking effective guidelines to be formulated to regulate the issue by the Centre and the states. The bench after hearing the amicus curiae held that “ The Chairperson or the nominee of the Chairperson of the NCW (National Commission for Women) should be associated with the panel formulating the model framework” . While hearing the case, the court had also observed that there is no unified mechanism related to reimbursement, management, and payment of compensation for victims of sexual assault and acid attacks. The court had asked Adv. Indra Jaising amicus curiae and the Centre to recommend on how best to evolve a unified and cohesive mechanism for payment of compensation to victims of sexual assault and also measures to rehabilitate these victims or at least reduce trauma they have undergone. “ It appears to us that funds are being released and handed over to the States by the central government authorities but there is no execution of the funds by the state and no compensation is being paid to the victims& hellip . This is an unhappy state of affairs and the victims of apathy are only those who had already suffered sexual assault and nobody else,” the court observed. In January 2013, an RTI application was filed by Saxena before the NALSA, the response to which revealed that though Section 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure was inserted by an amendment to the Code in 2009 to enable the court to direct the state to pay compensation to the victim if the compensation under Section 357 was inadequate or where the case ended in acquittal or discharge and the victim was required to be rehabilitated, compensation was awarded and received by the victim/ dependants in only eight cases until February 2013. This was after a lapse of over 4 years since the incorporation of the amendment in 2009. Furthermore, many states and union territories did not even have in place such a scheme for the victim's compensation. An interim application was filed by Saxena in 2016, stating that during the course of time between the filing of the PIL and the interim applications, many states had taken steps to resolve the issues raised by the petitioner. The court also directed the report of the panel is submitted on or before December 31.