Victim compensation scheme for survivors of sexual assault should also include children: SC [Read order]

The Supreme Court on July 25th, 2018 said that a scheme proposed by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) for compensating victims of sexual assault and acid attack should be modified to some extent to make it applicable to child victims of sexual abuse.

A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta accepting the Scheme called ‘Victim Compensation for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Acid Attack -2018’ has told senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, that "the scheme can be implemented with slight modifications in case of children. Please have a look at it and give us a composite note for women as well as children."

Jaising told the court that she will look into the matter and advice the court within two weeks along with filing an affidavit giving the rationale for the Scheme in so far as the women and children are concerned.

Further, the court has also directed the Government of India as well as all State Governments and the Administrations of the Union Territories to give wide publicity to the Scheme and to implement the Scheme in letter and spirit.

As per NALSA's scheme, a victim of gang rape would now get a minimum compensation of Rs. 5 lakh which could go up to a maximum of Rs. 10 lakh.

Similarly, in the case of rape and unnatural sexual assault, the victim would get a minimum of Rs. 4 lakh and a maximum of Rs. 7 lakh as compensation.

The scheme also states that victim of acid attacks, in case of disfigurement of face, would get a minimum compensation of Rs. 7 lakh, while the upper limit would be Rs. 8 lakh.

In acid attack cases, if the injury was more than 50 percent, a minimum compensation of Rs. 5 lakh would be given, while the maximum would be Rs. 8 lakh.

The matter has been listed on August 10th, 2018.