Victim and witness assistance programmes

1. What a victim-witness assistance programme does

The model developed in the United States in the 1970s, in prosecutors' offices and police departments, and spread through Europe as victim support services. Its usual services:

• Crisis intervention: immediate help after the crime, including medical care, shelter and counselling.
• Information: about the progress of investigation, dates of hearings, bail, the outcome and the offender's release.
• Court support: explaining procedure, accompanying the witness, separate waiting areas, help with travel and expenses, and reducing waiting time.
• Protection: against intimidation and retaliation, including relocation in serious cases.
• Compensation and restitution assistance: help with claims to state schemes and with presenting loss to the sentencing court.
• Referral: to counselling, legal aid, and longer-term support.

The UN Declaration of 1985 (paragraphs 14 to 17) requires States to provide victims with material, medical, psychological and social assistance through governmental, voluntary and community-based means, and to train police, health and justice personnel to respond to victims' needs.

2. Witness protection in India

India had no witness protection law for decades. The problem was exposed in the Best Bakery case, Zahira Habibulla H. Sheikh v. State of Gujarat, 2004 INSC 256, (2004) 4 SCC 158, where witnesses turned hostile under threat and the Supreme Court ordered a retrial outside the State. The Court said that a fair trial requires witnesses to depose without fear, and that the State has a duty to protect them.

In Mahender Chawla v. Union of India, 2018 INSC 1153, (2019) 14 SCC 615, the Court approved the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 prepared by the Union with NALSA, and directed that it be enforced by all States as law under Articles 141 and 142 until Parliament or the States legislated. The scheme provides for:

• a threat analysis report by the police on the witness's application;
• a competent authority in each district (chaired by the District and Sessions Judge) to pass witness protection orders;
• measures graded by threat: escort, change of phone number, installation of security devices, concealment of identity, relocation, in camera trial, and deposition through video link;
• a State Witness Protection Fund.

Section 398 BNSS, new in 2023, now requires every State Government to prepare and notify a Witness Protection Scheme for the State. The duty that rested on judicial direction now rests on statute.

3. Vulnerable witnesses

In Smruti Tukaram Badade v. State of Maharashtra, 2022 INSC 39, the Supreme Court directed every High Court to set up Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres and to adopt a scheme for them, and extended the category of vulnerable witnesses beyond child victims to include victims of sexual assault, witnesses with mental illness or disability, and others the court considers vulnerable. These centres let witnesses depose in a safe, child-friendly room, out of the accused's sight, with support persons.

4. Victims of rape

Victims of sexual offences receive the most elaborate protection in Indian law:

• Treatment: all hospitals must provide free first aid or medical treatment immediately and inform the police (section 397 BNSS, old 357C). See the BNSS note on victim compensation and treatment.
• Recording of statements by a woman officer, at the victim's residence or a place of her choice, with audio-video recording where the victim is disabled.
• In camera trial and, as far as practicable, trial by a woman judge.
• Identity protection: section 72 BNS (old 228A IPC) punishes disclosure of the victim's identity. In Nipun Saxena v. Union of India, 2018 INSC 1192, (2019) 2 SCC 703, the Court held that no one may print or publish the name of the victim or any fact that could identify her, and that FIRs in such cases must not be put in the public domain.
• Legal assistance and compensation: in Delhi Domestic Working Women's Forum v. Union of India, 1994 INSC 467, (1995) 1 SCC 14, four domestic servants had been raped by army personnel on a train. The Court laid down guidelines: legal representation for the victim from the police station onwards, a list of advocates at every police station, anonymity, and a Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, with compensation payable whether or not there is a conviction. In Bodhisattwa Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborty, 1995 INSC 907, (1996) 1 SCC 490, the Court held that rape violates the victim's right to life under Article 21 and ordered interim compensation during the trial.
• One Stop Centres (Sakhi), a Union scheme from 2015, give medical, legal, police and counselling help under one roof.

5. Victims of domestic violence

Domestic violence is hidden, repeated and committed by someone the victim depends on, which is why ordinary criminal process serves these victims poorly. The responses are:

• The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005: a civil remedy with Protection Officers and service providers; protection orders, residence orders, monetary relief, custody and compensation orders from the Magistrate; breach of a protection order is an offence. Its definition of domestic violence covers physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse.
• Criminal law: cruelty by husband or relatives, section 85 BNS (old 498A), and dowry death, section 80 BNS (old 304B).
• Support services: shelter homes, One Stop Centres, helplines and counselling, which are exactly the services of a victim assistance programme.

How this is examined

“Victim Witness Assistance Programmes” and “Victims of Domestic Violence” (February 2025, short notes); “Victims of Rape” (October 2023, short note). For the assistance programmes note, give the purpose, the services in section 1, the UN Declaration, and the Indian witness protection position in section 2. For victims of rape, use section 4 with Delhi Domestic Working Women's Forum as the lead case.