SC mulls compensation for wrongful conviction

NEW DELHI: Time and again cases surface where the accused are made "scapegoats" by the system and false evidence planted against them. These victims end up rotting in jail for years even if they eventually get acquitted. Now, Supreme Court has decided to examine the complex matter of compensating a person for wrongful arrest, prosecution and conviction.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta Monday sought assistance from the attorney general and solicitor general to adjudicate the issue which will have major implications, given that conviction rate in the country is just around 54%.

Appearing for one such accused, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium said people who have to spend years in jail over false charges must be compensated after being acquitted, as the incarceration amounts to violation of fundamental rights. He pleaded with the court to frame guidelines on the issue. Law Commission too had recommended a statutory framework for the purpose, he said.

Evidence against man, who spent 12 yrs in jail, fabricated by police: SC
The court was hearing the plea of a poor person who had to spend 12 years in jail, out of which six were under the shadow of death after he was awarded capital punishment for the rape and murder of a minor. The man was acquitted by SC, which held that the evidence against him was fabricated by police. Assisted by Square Circle Clinic of NALSAR, Hyderabad, he moved SC through advocates Mihir Samson and Yash S Vijay for compensation in lieu of what he had endured. He was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to death in 2019 by a trial court in Thane. His acquittal by SC came in 2025.

"The petitioner has suffered a grave and severe violation of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, on account of being falsely accused of heinous offences, illegally arrested, being made the subject of an illegal and tainted investigation, unfair prosecution, and suffering 12 years of wrongful incarceration, for which he ought to be appropriately compensated by the state as it has completely destroyed his life, his reputation and his family, with the latter reduced to abject penury...," the petition said.

Functionaries of the state were responsible for his arrest, prosecution and conviction. It is well settled that the state must be responsible for the wrongdoing of its servants in the harm caused to the fundamental rights of citizens, by way of appropriate compensation. This responsibility is on the basis of strict liability. The mere release of the individual from incarceration is not sufficient to correct the wrongs faced by him, and the state ought to be directed to pay appropriate compensation to him for the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage he suffered for 12 years and continues to suffer," the petition stated. As two other petitions have also been filed by aggrieved persons, the court clubbed all three cases together. In 2018, the Law Commission had recommended enacting a specific legal provision for redress in cases of miscarriage of justice.

Select The Times of India as your preferred source on Google Search