The Chandigarh Administration has decided to award compensation to victims of crime. As directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court,the Administration has drafted a policy and issued guidelines for award of compensation to victims or his/her dependents who have suffered loss and/or injury and/or require rehabilitation as a result of crime. Titled Victim Compensation Scheme,2010 (a copy of which is with Newsline),the draft policy was placed before the High Court last week by the Administration. The policy has been cleared by UT Administrator Shivraj Patil and awaits the Central governments approval for notification and effective implementation. The policy was prepared after a single Bench of the High Court had taken suo motu notice of the non implementation of a provision under the Code of Criminal Procedure under which it is mandatory for each state to award compensation to victims of crime. During the resumed hearing,the Administration placed on record a copy of its policy. The Administration has prepared seven categories of crime incidents under which compensation will be paid to victims. In case of loss of life,the minimum compensation to be awarded is Rs 3 lakh and the maximum being Rs 5 lakh. The minimum and maximum amount of compensation to be awarded to a rape victim is Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. In case of loss of any limb or part of body resulting in permanent disability,Rs 2 lakh as minimum and Rs 3 lakh will be the maximum compensation awarded to the victim or next of kin. In case of loss of any limb or part of body resulting in permanent disability above 20 per cent and below 40 per cent,Rs 60,000 will be the minimum and Rs 1 lakh the maximum compensation. However,in cases of loss of any limb or part of body resulting in permanent disability below 20 per cent,Rs 50,000 will be the minimum and maximum compensation payable to a victim. The last category is mental agony/trauma to women and child victims in cases where there is no physical loss or injury (such as human trafficking). For execution of the policy,a Victim Compensation Fund will be set up,which will be operated by the Deputy Commissioner,Chandigarh. But the policy also states that the victim or his/her dependents should not have been compensated for the loss of injury under any other scheme of the Central/state government of this nature.
