New policy to be tabled in Cabinet later this month

The State has cleared the decks for releasing compensation to victims of mob lynching and human trafficking. A year after Supreme Court pulled up States across the country for not formulating such a policy, Maharashtra Home Department will table a proposal in the Cabinet this month. The new policy has pegged the amount of compensation between ₹2,00,000 and ₹3,00,000 which could be increased to ₹10,00,000 in special cases.

Confirming this a senior home department official said, “A new policy has been formulated as per the guidelines of the honourable courts and will be tabled.”

The State had, on a direction by Bombay High Court last year, awarded a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the father of a 24-year-old man who was lynched by a mob in Pune in 2014.

The government had then assured the courts of formulating a policy on cases of lynching by mobs. However, human trafficking as a separate category was added following petitions from several non-profit groups and women’s organisations which had argued that the victims be duly compensated. “We have added human trafficking as a category after receiving several petitions from non-profit and women organisations. They too shall be awarded a compensation equal to that of mob lynching,” said the official.

The proposed policy will be in addition to the existing scheme for victims of communal violence who get ₹5,00,000 compensation. But a petition in Supreme Court last year claimed that 54 victims of lynching are yet to get compensation. This resulted in the court pulling up State governments for not putting a policy in place.