Comparative Analysis of Rights of Victim in The Criminal Proceedings in India: Need for improving Victim Justice

The victims of crime have long remained the forgotten identity in a judicial proceeding. Crime has been treated as wrong against society and thus the cases have been dealt as having two parties, the State and the accused. The aim of the criminal laws was focused on punishing the criminal and the plight of victims had been continuously ignored with no regard being paid to the needs or relevance of recognition of a victim as the actual sufferer of the crime. Gradually in India, the rights of victims have been recognized by the law and majorly by the courts. However, in comparison to the rights of the accused or other victim rights in other jurisdictions like UK, USA, and Canada, the Indian laws are still far behind. There is lack of specific legal provisions and uniformity in the sphere of victim rights. This study aims at in-depth analysis of the victim rights in the three stages of the criminal proceedings, i.e., investigation, enquiry and crime by simultaneously indulging in comparative analysis with rights of accused and victim rights in other jurisdiction and thereby suggesting the way forward.