New Delhi: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the government to make statutes for compensation and rehabilitation of the people who are acquitted by the courts and have been languishing in jails because of the wrongful prosecution.
According to reports, the PIL says that the state government along with the central government shall prepare a scheme for providing funds for compensation to the victim or his/her dependents suffering and requiring rehabilitation.
The PIL has been filed by Yash Giri seeking directions to the Union of India, Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs.
He contends that: "in case if the accused is acquitted after spending many years behind bars naturally makes him a victim of the system, thus the compensation and rehabilitation should be awarded to the acquitted person who has suffered as a result of the crime."
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He prays that 277th report proposed by Law Commission which laid down the legal remedies for wrongful prosecution on 30th August 2018, should be implemented.
Due to the wrongful prosecution, the person losses many precious years which violates Article 21 guaranteeing Protection of life and liberty.
He also seeks an interpretation of the term victim under Section 2(a) and in section 357-A of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973 as "victim can also be the person who is later acquitted and has been a victim of wrongful prosecution and incarceration".
"The sole purpose of this petition is to compensate and rehabilitate those persons who are the victim of the legal system. The persons who are accused and later acquitted after spending many years in the jail and who have lost their respect, faced agony and are often seen far behind the society," read the PIL.
