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Plea in Supreme Court for wrongful prosecution

Posted on March 16, 2021 by admin1  321

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A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to frame guidelines for compensation to victims of Wrongful Prosecution and implements the recommendations of Law Commission Report No-277 on Miscarriage of Justice in 2018.

Key Points –

  • India has no effective statutory/legal Mechanism for wrongful prosecutions due to police and prosecutorial misconduct which has resulted in a pandemic of false cases.
  • The petition has stated that the absence of an effective statutory or legal scheme for providing a 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.
  • The PIL cited several instances in which innocent citizens had been framed in criminal conspiracies and have had to spend almost all their life behind bars, only to be let off by the courts later.

Wrongful prosecution

  • They are the cases of miscarriage of justice where procedural misconducts – police or prosecutorial, malicious or negligent – resulted in wrongful prosecution of an innocent person, who was ultimately acquitted, with a court making an observation or recording a finding to that effect.
  • Article 14 (6) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights makes it mandatory for countries to have a statutory framework for providing compensation and rehabilitation to those who have been wrongfully prosecuted by the State

Recommendation of Law commission

The Commission had prepared the report on the basis of a Delhi High Court order in the Babloo Chauhan case in November 2017 to undertake a “comprehensive examination of the issue of relief and rehabilitation to victims of wrongful prosecution and incarceration”.

  • The Law Commission of India submitted its report titled ‘Wrongful Prosecution (Miscarriage of Justice): Legal Remedies’ to the Government of India on August 30, 2018.
    • Injustice caused to innocents needs to be redressed within the rights framework and not through ex-gratia by the State.
    • The commission recommended setting up a legal framework to compensate victims prosecuted wrongfully.
    • The Law Commission in its report called for a special court in every district.
    • The commission has also recommended the prosecution of erring government officers found to have maliciously prosecuted an innocent citizen.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR )

  • The ICCPR is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966. (UNGA). The ICCPR is monitored by the United Nations Human Rights Committee
  • It enables people to enjoy a wide range of human rights, including those relating to:
    • Freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
    • Fair trial rights
    • Freedom of thought, religion and expression
    • Privacy, home and family life
    • Equality and non-discrimination
  • The ICCPR is part of the International Bill of Human Rights, along with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Source :TH

 
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