Rape Survivors Cannot Be Made to Fetch SHO or Court Certificates for Interim Compensation: Rajasthan High Court

The petitioner was raped when she was a minor. An FIR was registered, and the accused was charge-sheeted under the IPC and the POCSO Act and is facing trial before a Special POCSO Court (paras 2, 5-6). After her statement had been recorded at the trial, she applied to the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for interim compensation under the Rajasthan Victim Compensation Scheme, 2011 (paras 6-7). On 15.03.2017 the DLSA rejected the application because the Station House Officer or Magistrate had issued no certificate about interim compensation (paras 3, 7). She challenged that order in this criminal writ petition, seeking directions for the grant of interim compensation (paras 3-4).

The Court found it shocking that the DLSA rejected a minor rape victim's application on the technical ground that a certificate was missing; it could instead have asked the SHO or Magistrate to send one (para 8). Tracing the law, it noted that Section 357 CrPC allowed compensation only out of a fine, while Section 357A, added by the 2009 amendment after the 154th Law Commission Report, provides compensation even where the accused is acquitted and required every State to frame a victim compensation scheme (para 11). Rajasthan framed the 2011 Scheme, whose Clause 5 sets out the procedure and Clause 5(8) the quantum for POCSO victims; the RSLSA and DLSAs implement it (paras 12-13, 19). Citing the Malimath Committee, Hari Singh v. Sukhbir Singh and Mohd. Haroon v. Union of India, the Court said victim compensation is not a new concept, the State is duty bound to compensate, and rehabilitation is paramount (paras 14-18). An RSLSA circular of 27.02.2015 already provides a complete mechanism for interim compensation, but the DLSA had not followed it in letter and spirit and had rejected the claim in a casual manner (para 20).