{"id":34286,"date":"2018-10-30T16:45:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34286"},"modified":"2018-10-30T16:45:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:15:56","slug":"set-up-centres-under-all-high-courts-for-vulnerable-victims-sc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/set-up-centres-under-all-high-courts-for-vulnerable-victims-sc\/","title":{"rendered":"Set up centres under all High Courts for vulnerable victims: SC:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-national\/set-up-centres-under-all-high-courts-for-vulnerable-victims-sc\/article19946491.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up centres under all High Courts for vulnerable victims: SC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a landmark order the Supreme Court has directed the High Courts to set up special centres for examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal cases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Supreme Court verdict:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vulnerable witnesses in criminal cases, often minor survivors of rape or victims of sex abuse, should testify without fear or intimidation in a conducive environment, the Supreme Court has said.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bench directed that at least two such centres in the jurisdiction of each High Court may be set up within three months from the date of order.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two Judge Bench was considering a Criminal Appeal filed by State of Maharashtra against the Judgment and order of acquittal of an accused in a rape case. The victim was a 14yr old deaf, dumb and mentally challenged girl.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Vulnerable Witnesses:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The order upholds the <\/span><b>right of vulnerable witnesses to be protected<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while testifying in court and is in consonance with international norms in these matters<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Bench of Justices A.K Goel and U.U Lalit found that vulnerable witnesses are often treated like any other witness of the State in a criminal trial.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victims often end up being ill-treated by the very system they had approached in the hope of justice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delay and intimidating questions during trial in a hostile environment lead to fewer convictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There should be special centres for examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal cases in the interest of conducive environment in court so as to encourage a vulnerable victim to make a statement,\u201d the Bench noted in its order.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bench said every district should have a special centre, which would provide vulnerable witnesses a friendly atmosphere to testify.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court referred to the Delhi High Court\u2019s initiative to set up vulnerable witnesses deposition centres and issuance of guidelines<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bench observed that the directions of Delhi High Court and setting up of special centres for vulnerable witnesses are consistent with the decision of the Supreme Court in <\/span><b>Sakshi V.Union of India and Ors(2004).<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Delhi High Court guidelines:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bench suggested that other high courts should adopt the Delhi HC\u2019s \u2018Guidelines for Recording the Evidence of Vulnerable Witnesses in Criminal Matters,\u2019 with required modifications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Delhi HC\u2019s guidelines are filtered from the best practices followed by other countries and the police and precedents of the apex court and high courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The practices include a screen or some arrangement by which the victim does not see the body or face of the accused; reducing cross-examination questions to writing and handing them over to the judge to be put to the victim in a language that is clear and not embarrassing; and sufficient breaks for victims of child abuse or rape while testifying.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why there is need for separate complexes?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The complex provides a separate entry for vulnerable witnesses, so that they do not come in direct with accused at any point of time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are provisions for support persons, pre-trial court visit and facilities for pick and drop of the witnessss.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The complex has been equipped with all facilities of audio-visual exchange for a free interface between the presiding judge, the witness and the accused without witness facing the accused.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Government initiatives:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enactment of stringent laws like Vishaka guidelines and the Criminal Law(Amendment ) Bill, 2013.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> :<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of Procedure, 1973 on <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">laws related to sexual offences<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bill received Presidential assent on 2 April 2013<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This new Act has expressly recognised certain acts as offences which were dealt under related laws. These new offences like, acid attack, sexual harassment, voyeurism, stalking have been incorporated into the Indian Penal Code<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most important change that has been made in the change in definition of rape under IPC.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the Ordinance sought to change the word <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rape<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to sexual assault, in the Act the word &#8216;rape&#8217; has been retained in Section 375, and was extended to include acts in addition to vaginal penetration.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Set up centres under all High Courts for vulnerable victims: SC:\u00a0 Context: In a landmark order the Supreme Court has directed the High Courts to set up special centres for examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal cases. Supreme Court verdict: Vulnerable witnesses in criminal cases, often minor survivors of rape or victims of sex abuse,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/set-up-centres-under-all-high-courts-for-vulnerable-victims-sc\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Set up centres under all High Courts for vulnerable victims: SC:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704918417},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}