Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 18
As criminals and terrorists manage
to get better legal assistance, Chief Justice of India JS Khehar on Saturday
expressed serious concern over victims of crime getting a raw deal from the
justice delivery system.
“We extended access to justice like
no other country would, but I wonder what have we done for victims?” the CJI
said while inaugurating the 15th ‘All India Meet of State Legal Service Authorities’
here. He exhorted legal volunteers to work for the victims of crime.
Without naming 1993 Mumbai blast
case convict Yakub Memon, the CJI said a convict in a terror crime had all
possible access to justice as permissible under the law, even after exhausting
all legal remedies up to the Supreme Court, but victims were often neglected.
Memon was given a midnight hearing by the Supreme Court on July 29, 2015, even
after he had exhausted all his legal remedies. He was hanged the next morning.
Noting that criminals got access to
justice till the very end, the CJI asked legal volunteers to reach out to
victims of crime to ensure they got due compensation.
“I have wondered over the years,
what about the victims... what about the families which have lost their bread
earner... what about that acid attack victim who has been defaced and cannot
survive the society. I think about rape victims and their lives and I wonder
why we don’t reach out to them,” Justice Khehar said.
Calling upon para-legal volunteers
to make 2017 a year of the victims, Justice Khehar said: “Let’s inform every
victim about section 357A of CrPC, that he has the right to compensation.”
Minister
of State for Law and Justice PP Chaudhary, who appreciated the NALSA theme song
‘Ek Muthi Asman’ produced by filmmaker Prakash Jha, said the government was
willing to support NALSA in spreading legal awareness. He advocated use of
information technology to reach out to the consumers of justice.
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