Justice Malimath Committee Recommendation on Victims of Crime !
Malimath Committee in its report has suggested that the right of the victim to appeal against the order passed by the trial court should be further extended. The committee found no credible reason for the provision in the code of Criminal Procedure that an appeal against acquittal should lie only to the High Court and not to any court below.
Moreover, the right to such appeal should not be limited only to the prosecution but it should be available to the accused as well where the prosecution declines to file the appeal. However, Section 372 of Cr. RC. as amended by the Cr. RC. (Amendment) Act, 2008 now provides that the victim need not approach the prosecution for its consent or approval to file an appeal against the acquittal of the accused.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
This is indeed a welcome change in the procedural law which now enables the victim to move in appeal against the acquittal order passed by the trial court or against an order awarding the accused a lesser sentence or against an order convicting the accused for a lesser offence or where the compensation awarded to him (i.e. victim) is inadequate.
It would thus be seen that the amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in 2008, has undoubtedly made a beginning towards statutory protection of victim’s rights under the criminal justice system and now it is for the criminal law administrator to implement the law in its true spirit.
Before concluding, it must be stated that victimology and justice for victims of crimes is not exclusively a legal problem, it also has sociological, psychological, financial and ethical implications which need to be addressed jointly by experts working in these fields adopting a multi-disciplinary approach.
A community based Joint Victim Impact Panel on the American pattern may be constituted comprising lawyers, judges, sociologists, psychologists, women activists, politicians etc. to decide victim’s rights and claims and their rehabilitation in the society.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The role of courts and judges is no less important in imposing sentences which have great impact on social order and therefore public interest, especially those of victims, should not be lost right of. Any liberal attitude by imposing meagre sentences without taking into consideration the woes and sufferings of the victims and its impact on society shall be result wise counterproductive in the long run.
The victimological researches for the past three decades have shown that care and protection of victim’s right is an inseparable part of the sentencing system though apparently it refers to the accused who perpetrates the crime. The law and particularly, the criminal law as a cornerstone of the edifice of “order” in the society, should focus not only on challenges confronting the society but also the sufferings of victims of crimes who are faced with multiple problems for years and, in same cases even for the whole of their life.
It hardly needs to be stated that crime is one single act perpetrated by the offender but its implications on society in general and victim(s) in particular are far more painful, torturous and disgusting which the criminal law administrators must keep in the forefront while dispensing criminal justice.