The Witness Protection Scheme allows for a wide range of protection measures that must be taken to protect people testifying in criminal cases (Getty photo)

The Supreme Court today gave its seal of approval to a draft witness protection plan prepared by the government. The plan, called the Witness Protection Scheme, will have to be implemented by all states, except Jammu and Kashmir (which has a separate constitution), until Parliament turns the draft into law, the Supreme Court ruled today.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice A K Sikri said it has made some changes to the draft plan, which has been prepared by the Centre in consultation with the states.

The hearing in the Supreme Court today was on a petition that had sought protection for witnesses in the rape cases involving Asaram Bapu. (Witnesses in those cases have come under sometimes fatal attacks.)

During a previous hearing, the government had told the Supreme Court that it had formed a draft witness protection scheme that would be turned into a law "in due course".

Until then, the government said, the Supreme Court could ask states to follow this draft scheme.

Today, the Supreme Court did just that, asking states to follow the draft Witness Protection Scheme until it is made into a law.

According to a previous draft published by the government, the Witness Protection Scheme allows for various measures that must be undertaken in order to protect people who appear as witnesses in criminal cases.

This could range from ensuring that witnesses do not come face-to-face with the accused to giving them close proximity protection.

Some of the other protective measures include monitoring of mail and phone calls, change of phone number, installation of CCTV cameras at the witness's home and concealment of identity.

In exceptional cases, the government can also help change a witness's identity.

After all, "witnesses are eyes and ears of the court", as the draft protection scheme notes.