HC: Why shouldn’t compensation be paid to dependents of acid attack fatalities

Now,her parents are being denied compensation citing this procedural lacuna.

Swatika had come to Mohali,got a job and was earning around Rs 15,000 per month. After her death,her father does not even have funds to fight for justice. He has been provided free legal aid help by the High Court Legal Services Committee to approach the Court.

Finding the rejection of compensation,by the authorities,strange the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Mohali Police and concerned authorities to explain as to why compensation should not be paid to the dependents of the deceased. The Victim Compensation scheme was prepared by Chandigarh,Punjab and Haryana only after the High Court took suo motu cognisance in 2010 and directed the states to swing into action.

It is the duty of a state to compensate a victim of crime,a mandatory provision under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). While Chandigarh was the first to come up with the policy in 2010,Punjab and Haryana followed.

After Swatika Negi (25) died in PGI in September,2011 her father slipped into depression and is still struggling to recover from it. Unfit to work,Prem has no source of income. He has a 14-year-old-son who has no funds to complete his studies. Prem’s brother,who lives in Chandigarh,is helping Prem’s family to make ends meet. After the attack,Prem allegedly started receiving threats from the assailants. Aggrieved,he moved the High Court in October last year,with the help of free legal aid,demanding police protection and compensation.

A single Bench,before whom the case had initially come up,had referred the matter to a division bench after the state authorities expressed their helplessness in paying compensation citing “no provision” under the policy. The division bench has now asked the Mohali Police and state authorities to explain as to why financial help cannot be offered to parents of the deceased.

Advocate Ravi Kamal Gupta,counsel for the father,contended that it was highly unfair to deny compensation to the dependents merely because the policy is silent about such a provision. Gupta cited High Court judgments wherein over Rs 15 lakh has been paid to acid attack victims.

“The present case is much more serious. For,the victim was the only earning member for the family,” Gupta argued. He also argued that acid attack is a crime against an individual and that the state is liable to compensate victims of crime.