Victims of crimes are no longer mute spectators who can be made to sit outside courtrooms while the State took over and won or lost their cases in court, the Supreme Court held on Monday in a judgment endorsing the right of the kin of farmers murdered in Lakhimpur Kheri to independently appeal Ashish Mishra’s bail when the State of Uttar Pradesh did not.
A three–judge Bench led by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said criminal trials are not just between the accused and the State anymore. The State does not take on the persona of the victim. The ‘victim’ or the de facto sufferer of the crime is an independent persona with an equal if not a greater right to participate in the quest for justice. The victim has to be heard by the courts at every stage — right from investigation to the end of the judicial trial, and especially during bail hearings of the accused.
“Until recently, criminal law had been viewed on a dimensional plane wherein the courts were required to adjudicate between the accused and the State. The ‘victim’ — the de facto sufferer of a crime — had no participation in the adjudicatory process and was made to sit outside the court as a mute spectator. However, with the recognition that the ethos of criminal justice dispensation to prevent and punish ‘crime’ had surreptitiously turned its back on the ‘victim’, the jurisprudence with respect to the rights of victims to be heard and to participate in criminal proceedings began to positively evolve,” the Supreme Court observed.
