Wrongful Prosecution, Incarceration, Conviction – The Requirement for Statutory Framework to Compensate

The present paper examines the issue of compensating individuals for wrongful prosecution, incarceration or even conviction. This aspect has been examined across the world and has given rise to a plethora of views and opinions. The issue itself is a highly complex one and any view is bound to have its pros and cons. However, progressive democracies have overwhelmingly evolved statutory frameworks to provide for some sort of compensation for certain types of instances of wrongful prosecution, incarceration or conviction. India does not, at present, have any such specific statutory framework although the Constitutional Courts have, under certain circumstances, awarded compensation to individuals who have been wrongly arrested. These instances of the Constitutional Courts’ intervention are clearly more the exception than the rule and would not substitute the requirement of a specific law in this regard. The Law Commission of India has also, in its 277th Report, also made recommendations to this effect.