WITNESS PROCTION IN INDIA- NEED FOR LEGISLATION - Pranjali P Devurkar & Reddy Pawan Kumar
INTRODUCTION
A witness is an indispensable part of a justice delivery system playing a pivotal role in determining the final outcome of a case. According to Bentham, witnesses are “eyes and ears of justice”. Often these “very” witnesses turn hostile, become untraceable or simply eliminated. In India, this tendency can mostly be seen in the cases involving rich influential persons, corrupt politicians who leave the system into a bizarre condition, making rule of law, a mockery. A quick walk into the recent past, such as in the infamous Best Bakery case, the Jessica Lal murder case, Asaram Bapu case and the most recent one the Vyapam scam illustrates a lament but increasing tendency amongst the witnesses to turn hostile due to various plausible reasons. These cases come as an eye opener exposing glaring defects in the mechanism of rendering justice, as for many of these courageous witnesses taking part in the justice rendering system can be life threatening sometimes resulting in death. The lack of a comprehensive witness protection program as part of the criminal justice system is effectively facilitating attempts to …show more content…
The Witness Security Reform Act, 1984 provides for relocation and other protection of a witness or a potential witness (and the family members or people closely associated, in some cases).The United States has one of the most well developed Witness Protection Programmes. Effective Witness Protection schemes are there in Canada and South Africa also. In European countries such as Italy, Germany and Netherlands, the Witness Protection Programme covers organised crimes, terrorism, and other violent crimes where the accused already know the
INTRODUCTION
A witness is an indispensable part of a justice delivery system playing a pivotal role in determining the final outcome of a case. According to Bentham, witnesses are “eyes and ears of justice”. Often these “very” witnesses turn hostile, become untraceable or simply eliminated. In India, this tendency can mostly be seen in the cases involving rich influential persons, corrupt politicians who leave the system into a bizarre condition, making rule of law, a mockery. A quick walk into the recent past, such as in the infamous Best Bakery case, the Jessica Lal murder case, Asaram Bapu case and the most recent one the Vyapam scam illustrates a lament but increasing tendency amongst the witnesses to turn hostile due to various plausible reasons. These cases come as an eye opener exposing glaring defects in the mechanism of rendering justice, as for many of these courageous witnesses taking part in the justice rendering system can be life threatening sometimes resulting in death. The lack of a comprehensive witness protection program as part of the criminal justice system is effectively facilitating attempts to …show more content…
The Witness Security Reform Act, 1984 provides for relocation and other protection of a witness or a potential witness (and the family members or people closely associated, in some cases).The United States has one of the most well developed Witness Protection Programmes. Effective Witness Protection schemes are there in Canada and South Africa also. In European countries such as Italy, Germany and Netherlands, the Witness Protection Programme covers organised crimes, terrorism, and other violent crimes where the accused already know the