SC: Need to compensate jailed undertrial after clean acquittal
Flagging the issue of prolonged incarceration of accused followed by a “clean acquittal”, the Supreme Court has underlined the need to compensate such persons for loss of years of his life and personal liberty.
“Someday, the courts, especially the constitutional courts, will have to take a call on a peculiar situation that arises in our justice delivery system. There are cases where clean acquittal is granted by the criminal courts to the accused after very long incarceration as an undertrial,” a Bench led by Justice AS Oka said on Thursday, while granting bail to former Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji in a money laundering case linked to a cash-for-jobs scam.
“When we say a clean acquittal, we are excluding the cases where the witnesses have turned hostile or there is a bona fide defective investigation. In such cases of clean acquittal, crucial years in the life of the accused are lost. In a given case, it may amount to violation of rights of the accused under Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life and liberty and right to speedy trial) which may give rise to a claim for compensation,” said the Bench, which included Justice AG Masih.
Noting that he has been in jail for over 15 months and the trial was unlikely to conclude in three-four years, the Supreme Court had on September 26 granted bail to former Balaji — arrested by the ED on June 14, 2023, on money laundering charges.
“If the appellant’s detention is continued, it will amount to an infringement of his fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of a speedy trial,” the Bench said.
“There is no law in India for providing compensation to victims of wrongful prosecution. If an accused secures a clean acquittal and he wants compensation from the prosecuting agency or the state, there is a complete legislative vacuum. At best, he can file a complaint against the complainant, not the state for having been framed. He can invoke Article 21 to claim compensation, but there is no entitlement,” senior advocate Sanjay Jain told The Tribune.
