Victim Compensation Laws and Restorative Justice

Abstract

The traditional criminal justice paradigm, oriented primarily toward the identification, prosecution, and punishment of offenders, has historically accorded the victim of crime a marginal role, typically confined to that of witness. Over the past four decades, this orientation has been substantially challenged by the emergence of victimology as a distinct field of inquiry and by the parallel growth of restorative justice as an alternative or complementary model of criminal accountability, one that centres the harm suffered by the victim and seeks reparation, dialogue, and reintegration rather than punishment alone. This paper examines the legal framework for victim compensation in India, tracing its constitutional origins in the Supreme Court's public law compensation jurisprudence, its statutory embodiment in Section 357 and Section 357A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and its continuation under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. It further situates these developments within the broader international framework established by the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, 1985, and examines the theoretical and practical relationship between victim compensation and restorative justice. The paper concludes that while Indian law has made significant strides in recognising victims' entitlement to compensation, the fragmented, state-specific character of compensation schemes and the still-limited institutionalisation of restorative practices constrain the system's capacity to deliver holistic justice to victims of crime