‘Justice in the rule book may not serve the victim’

The victim of a crime should have a say in the punishment of the criminal, the Supreme Court has said in a judgment.

A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur. S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta held that punishment should be “meaningful” to the victim also.

For this, “it is necessary to seriously consider giving a hearing to the victim while awarding the sentence to a convict”, the Bench said.

In criminal prosecution, the State takes the front seat while the victim becomes a prosecution witness. The crime is primarily considered a wrong against society and the punishment, a deterrent for prospective offenders.

Equal say

With its order, the Supreme Court, has made it clear that the victim or her family — who has suffered the crime — should have an equal say in the punishment of the perpetrator.

“A victim impact statement or a victim impact assessment must be given due recognition so that an appropriate punishment is awarded to the convict,” Justice Lokur observed.

What may be ‘justice’ in the rule book may not serve the victim. Taking another step further, Justice Lokur said even taking a statement from the victim on the sentence of the convict may not mean relief to the victim.

“The husband of a young married woman gets killed in a fight or a violent dispute. How is the young widow expected to look after herself in such circumstances, which could be even more traumatic if she had a young child? It is true that a victim impact statement or assessment might result in an appropriate sentence being awarded to the convict, but that would not necessarily result in ‘justice’ to the young widow,” Justice Lokur said.

On this, Justice Lokur observed that the answer perhaps lies in rehabilitation of the widow rather than merely ensuring that the criminal gets a life sentence for his crime.

“Today, the rights of an accused far outweigh the rights of the victim of an offence in many respects… There needs to be some balancing… we still have a long way to go to bring the rights of victims of crime to the centre stage and to recognise them as human rights,” Justice Lokur wrote in the judgment.

The case concerned the rejection of an appeal filed by Mallikarjun Kodagali, a victim of an attack in February 2009, by the Karnataka High Court in 2014. The Supreme Court set aside the High Court decision.