Government sets up a Central Victim Compensation Fund, with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 20, 2015
The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued guidelines for the Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF), aimed at encouraging the states to seriously implement the victim compensation schemes. These guidelines are a result of the directions of the Supreme Court in a PIL relating to acid attack victims.
After the infamous acid attack on her, Laxmi, a survivor filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in 2006 on various issues related to Acid Attack victims. The Supreme Court in its final order delivered in April this year, directed the State Governments to strictly follow the laid down procedure for granting compensation to the victims. It also directed the Union Government to fix the minimum compensation at Rs 3 lakh. Subsequent to this PIL, the Ministry of Home Affairs held consultations with various state governments & UTs and proposed setting up of a ‘Central Victim Compensation Fund’ (CVCF) that includes compensation to acid attack victims. The MHA has now issued detailed Guidelines of this scheme.
The CrPC Amendment in 2008
The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was amended in 2008 and a new section 357A was introduced. The crux of the amendment was that the state governments come up with a compensation scheme for the victim or his dependents who have suffered loss or injury as a result of the crime and who require rehabilitation.
Following this amendment and the subsequent directions of the Supreme Court in the Acid Attack PIL, states have come up with a Victim Compensation scheme. There were wide variations from one state to another in the amount of compensation. The current central scheme is aimed at harmonizing the state schemes with a minimum fixed amount of compensation for victims of various crimes.
The CVCF Guidelines
The CVCF Guidelines mention three broad objectives namely
The CVCF is setup with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore that would be sanctioned from the Nirbhaya fund. The fund also is open to contribution from public.
How can states access the funds from CVCF?
To encourage the states to effectively implement their victim compensation schemes, the central government has agreed to reimburse the amount of compensation paid by the state governments. But for the states to access funds from CVCF, the following must be done.
The following minimum amount of compensation is fixed by the MHA and states must also fix a similar minimum if they are to take the benefit of CVCF.
Who is eligible for award of Compensation?
State governments are authorized to come up with eligibility criteria and the process. Broadly, states have come up with the following eligibility criteria.
Some of the above criteria could vary from state to state.
The procedure for Grant of Compensation
The relevant state schemes also lay down the procedure to be followed for the grant of compensation
Will the CVCF help?
States might be more interested in implementing the victim compensation scheme, now that the union government will reimburse the compensation amount. This is expected to encourage states and also to harmonize differences in the quantum of compensation. For e.g., the Victim compensation scheme of Andhra Pradesh, notified in April 2015 fixed the compensation for a rape victim at Rs 2 lakh while the CVCF guidelines fixed the minimum compensation at Rs 3 lakh. Such differences are expected to be sorted out with CVCF. Only time will tell if states would actually make use of the scheme.