Unveiling the Gaps: A Critical Analysis of Victim Protection under the Code of Criminal Procedure

The criminal justice system is an instrument of social control used to deter, prevent, control crime and to punish the criminals. The governance in a democratic country is judged inter alia, by the manner in which the criminal justice system is administered. The Indian criminal system is built on the principles of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and ‘let hundred guilty be acquitted but one innocent should not be convicted’. This shows how criminal centric the system is and there is very little attention given to the victims of the crime, their rights and protection. The current system barely involves victims, even if it is then they are only at the periphery of the criminal justice system, they usually take a backseat. It is high time we reverse this trend and put the victims on priority, as they are subjected to secondary victimization by the acts of the accused. This paper discusses the existing rights and protection of victims and the recent developments to the same. It has also been contemplated ‘is it enough to imprison criminals?’ Does this relieve the victim? Victims are not given proper and adequate assistance required and have a very minuscule number of rights and safeguards provided under the law and only an ad hoc ex gratia amount in compensation by the government that too at its discretion. Majority of them are either provided under law commission reports or the committee’s reports, whose implementation is rarely seen. It is tried to examine the flaws that are prevalent in the existing system and further complemented with the suggestions for the same. It becomes crucial to peek into the international scenario, and see what else our criminal system can equip itself with. To make the system a victim centric one, it is indisputably a requirement to bring the victim to the forefront of the trial, by encouraging them to actively participate in the process and not just be equivalent to that of witnesses . It is further concluded with the necessary changes and amends to the current system to vindicate the victim’s cause and the methodology for the same. The legislature and the executive wings need to attune the criminal justice system in order to tap into the potential to reach the victim in dire need of help.