Procedural Limitations of Victim Impact Statement in India: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

To empower victims and ensure the protection of their rights, the lawmakers and the courts are emphasizing the need to introduce victim impact statements (VIS) in the Indian criminal justice system. A VIS is a written or oral statement given by the victim during the trial. It helps judges to assess the real physical, financial, and psychological damage of that crime on the victim and to determine the quantum of punishment accordingly. The Supreme Court highlighted the need of VIS in a recent judgement. Consequently, the Parliament introduced the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2020, to forward the cause. Although introducing VIS in India is a major step towards securing the long-awaited rights of victims, the author believes that introducing VIS in India, in the way it is being done, will do more harm than good. Thus, this article is dedicated to presenting the problems that India may face after implementing VIS according to the bill, and suggesting an alternative model to deal with those issues while ensuring the efficacy of VIS. The article is divided into three parts—the first part covers the meaning of victims and victim impact statement, the second part covers the current status of victims in the system and the way in which the bill will improve it, and finally, the third part covers why the integration of victims in the said way can become a problem for the country and what are some variations in the system that can overcome those shortcomings.