Drawing on an examination of the evolution, problems and future challenges in victim compensation in Indian legal history, this paper unearths the important legal metamorphoses that followed across the various legal phases and the ongoing impediments to the practical and effective introduction and implementation of these schemes. Victim compensation in India, originally an expression of retributive justice, has shifted to a rights-based, victim-centric logic and practice. It has been a gradual and incremental shift. But a series of landmark judgements and a string of legislative milestones have aided this new form of reckoning in the administration of justice. The real experiential ‘distance’ between victims and ‘regular’ justice-delivery systems continues to pose formidable administrative, procedural and experiential hurdles that can undermine victim compensation. This paper has been designed to articulate how legal changes in institutions facilitated the concept of victim compensation in India – and also to indicate places where this political framework has stalled, as well as to make practical recommendations for ways to overcome these impediments and effect a future where the disbursement of compensation is part of a victimisation and reintegration plan that is viewed as a part of a larger theatrics of justice and social recognition – and where victim-centric compensation is fair, human and empowering.
