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SC mandates timelyvictim compensationorders by trial courts
The Supreme Court has mandated trial courts to order victim compensation during judgments, addressing delays and ensuring support for crime survivors.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed trial courts across the country to issue appropriate orders for payment of compensation to victims of crime at the time of delivering judgments, lamenting that survivors are often left to run around to secure compensation that the law already entitles them to.
A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said that one of the primary reasons compensation remains unpaid is the absence of clear judicial directions from special or sessions courts, which results in the burden shifting onto the victim to apply separately before legal services authorities.
“We find that one of the impediments in disbursement of victim compensation to the victims is the absence of a direction being issued,” noted the bench, while hearing a public interest petition filed by Jyoti Praveen Khandpasole, a social justice advocate from Amravati, on November 3. The petition pointed out that despite the statutory scheme under Section 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (now replaced by Section 396 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita), and the similar mandate under the POCSO Act and Rules, compensation is rarely ordered unless victims pursue separate and lengthy proceedings.
Under the victim compensation framework, every state is required to notify a compensation scheme for victims of crimes such as sexual assault, acid attacks, trafficking, and other offences causing physical or mental harm. The amount is to be determined by the state legal services authority (SLSAs) or district legal services authority (DLSAs), but courts are required to issue the initial direction for compensation. Section 357A was introduced in 2009 to shift the burden from the victim onto the State, recognising that criminal proceedings often leave survivors without financial or psychological support.
The bench directed that a copy of its order be circulated by all high courts to principal district judges and further communicated to special courts and sessions courts. The bench also directed that training modules in state judicial academies must specifically include steps for determining and ordering victim compensation to ensure judges are aware of the statutory obligation.
“We direct that the concerned special court/session courts ought to pass appropriate directions with regard to payment of victim compensation in appropriate cases, so that the implementation of the said directions of the concerned special court/session courts could be easily made by the state legal services authority through the district legal services authority or the taluk legal services authority, as the case may be,” stated the order.
It added: “The registrar generals of all the high courts shall communicate this order to the directors of all the state judicial academies for onward communication to all principal district judges that the special courts/session courts and also to impress upon concerned special court Judges with regard to the aspect of payment of victim compensation during the course of their training in the state judicial academies in accordance with Section 357A of the CrPC, corresponding to Section 396 of the BNSS and POCSO Act and Rules.”
The court also issued notice to the Union government, while the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), through advocate Rashmi Nandakumar, accepted notice in court.
This is not the first time Justice Nagarathna has emphasised systemic lapses in victim compensation. In November 2024, a bench led by her had directed that in cases of sexual assault of women and minor girls, trial courts would be mandatorily required to order compensation while passing judgment -- whether the accused is convicted or acquitted. That direction was issued after the court discovered that a POCSO court in Maharashtra had convicted a man for gangrape of a 13-year-old but failed to award compensation to the survivor under Section 357A CrPC or Rule 9 of the POCSO Rules, 2020.
At the time, the bench had observed that compensation is in addition to any fine imposed and may also be granted on an interim basis to provide immediate relief. It further stated that the Legal Services Authorities must ensure swift payment.
Friday’s order now expands that emphasis beyond sexual offences to all categories of offences covered under the state victim compensation schemes. By directing courts themselves to initiate the compensation process, the Supreme Court has sought to correct what it described as both an “awareness gap” and an administrative bottleneck that have resulted in victims being left to navigate the system on their own despite clear legislative intent.
