E-Paper
Want of proper facts leads to embarrassment of govt in Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong exception to Madhya Pradesh paying a meagre amount of compensation to a rape victim with a reported comment ‘Are you doing a charity? How can you do so? You value a rape at Rs 6500?’
It was want of proper facts which were supposed to be placed before the Supreme Court that led to the embarrassment of the state government in the rape victim compensation matter on Thursday, say official sources in the Madhya Pradesh government.
Left red faced after the Supreme Court’s stricture, the state government is now preparing to place facts before the court regarding compensation provisions, amount given and number of victims compensated. However, officials claim a rape victim is given a minimum of Rs 3 lakh against compensation once the crime is proved.
The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong exception to Madhya Pradesh paying a meager amount of compensation to a rape victim with a reported comment ‘Are you doing a charity? How can you do so? You value a rape at Rs 6500?’.
The court’s stricture came during hearing on a bunch of petitions regarding compensation to rape victims and concern over women safety in the country after 2012 Nirbhaya incident. The states and union territories are supposed to file affidavits before the court detailing the amount received under Nirbhaya fund, amount disbursed and number of victims compensated. Madhya Pradesh is one of the few states which have filed the affidavits so far.
As per official sources, as many as Rs 1.21 crore have been disbursed so far among the rape victims in the past 3 years. Thus roughly 40 victims have got the amount of compensation whereas the number of victims who were supposed to get the compensation in the past 3 years is 1951.
Also, the amount of compensation is given only on recommendation of the legal services authority at the district and the state level which is headed by the district judge at the district level and chief justice of high court at the state level. Thus, the state government can hardly diktat its terms in provision of compensation, say the official sources.
As per official sources, the government is of the view that there was no proper briefing to the government advocate who placed the facts before the court. Perhaps he was provided with just two figures- the amount of compensation given to rape victims which stands at Rs 12196000 and the number of victims who were supposed to get the compensation in the past 3 years. The number of victims is 1951. Thus, when the amount of compensation was divided by the number of victims it came Rs 6251 per victim.
The official sources said the fact remained that it was only a little more than 40 victims who had got the compensation whereas the rest were yet to be given the compensation. This fact, perhaps, couldn’t be placed before the Supreme Court.
When contacted KK Singh, additional chief secretary, Home, Madhya Pradesh government, said, “We are going to explain our factual position before the Supreme Court on the date of next hearing. A rape victim is given a minimum Rs 3 lakh as compensation on the recommendation of the legal services authority. We are looking into where was the communication gap.”
