"Compensate Victims Of Wrongful Prosecution": Plea Before Supreme Court Seeks Directions To The Centre

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to Centre to frame Guidelines for compensation to victims of Wrongful Prosecution and implement the recommendations of Law Commission Report No-277 on Miscarriage of Justice.

The plea filed by advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has sought directions to the States to implement Centre's Guideline for Compensation to Victims of Wrongful Prosecution and give compensation to innocent people in spirit of the recommendations of Law Commission Report on Miscarriage of Justice. It has further urged the Court to use its plenary constitutional power to frame the guidelines for compensation to victims of wrongful prosecutions and direct the Centre and States to implement them till the recommendations of the Law Commission Report-277 on Miscarriage of Justice are implemented religiously.

According to the petitioner, the cause of action of the present petition accrued on 28th Jan 2021 when the Division Bench of Allahabad High Court declared one, Mr. Vishnu Tiwari who was arrested in 2000 after being booked for rape and atrocities under SC/ST Act, as innocent and observed that the motive of the FIR was land dispute, after he had been in jail for 20 years.

The petition has stated that the absence of effective statutory or legal scheme for providing mandatory compensatory scheme to victims of wrongful malicious prosecutions and incarceration of innocents, infringes fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 and 21 of the constitution.

"False cases led to suicides of innocents who are victims of police and prosecutorial misconduct, who lose hope and lives of their families destroyed after years of delayed trials due to the non-effective machinery which only gets aggravated by denial or reluctance of taking penal actions in a routine manner by the Courts against misconduct of investigating officers and vexatious complainants, mostly under the guile of absence of malice and defence of mistake done in good faith which leads to miscarriage of justice." the plea reads.

The plea has further cited the Blackstone's principle which stated that "better that ten guilty person's escape, than one innocent suffer". It has further cited Supreme Court's order in the case of Maulad Ahmed v. State of Uttar Pradesh, where it had observed that " If a police officer manipulates the record such as police diary etc., it will be the end of honest investigation; and, such offences shall receive deterrent punishment which is under Section 218 IPC"

According to the petitioner, the existing legal remedies are complex, arbitrary, episodic and indeterminate and hence, in absence of any effective statutory and legal mechanisms, there is a dire need to address the miscarriage of justice by a set of specific guidelines for compensation to victims of wrongful prosecutions due to police and prosecutorial conduct.

The State is responsible for the tortuous acts of its employees and must repair the damage done to citizens by its officers, by adequate monetary and non monetary compensation.

"Defense of sovereign immunity isn't available against constitutional remedy. Hence, the above principles are needed to be taken into account routinely for granting compensation by all the Courts as a practice which is rarely done in the guise of absence of malice by good faith leading to rampant miscarriage of justice." -the plea states

The plea has stated that the Centre cannot shy away from its obligation to safeguard and protect the right to life, liberty and dignity to every citizen. Therefore , it is for the Centre to evolve suitable statutory and legal mechanism to address and safeguard citizen rights guaranteed under Article 21 against wrongful prosecutions and incarceration of innocents by addressing the miscarriage of justice by suitable amendments in the IPC and CrPC on utmost priority.

Further, according to the petitioner, till the amendments are done, it is the need of hour to have a specific guidelines and for the State and its agencies to prevent such police and prosecutorial misconduct which is rampantly destroying lives of innocents who are falsely implicated and then acquitted after years of turmoil in the guise of "prosecution could not prove beyond doubt" and never served justice due to disdainful approach of State which is a factor for pendency of over 40 million cases.

The plea has cited Delhi High Court's observation in the case of Babloo Chauhan v. State Government of NCT of Delhi, where while dealing with an appeal on the issues of fine and awarding of default sentences without reasoning and suspension of sentence during pendency of the appeal, the Court had expressed its concerns about wrongful implication of innocent persons who are acquitted after long years of incarceration, and the lack of a legislative framework to provide relief to those who are wrongfully prosecuted