Munmun Kaur
Published On: January 12, 2022 at 11:54 IST
The Supreme Court on January 11 expanded the definition of “Vulnerable witness”. It included the categories of age-neutral victims of sexual assault, gender-neutral victims of sexual assault, witnesses suffering from mental illness and any witness deemed to have threat perception under the witness protection scheme of 2018 of the Union government. This is in addition to the original definition of “Vulnerable witness” which used to be child below the age of 18.
A Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant while pointing at the need for special facilities catering to the creation of safe environment for recording evidence of vulnerable witnesses, directed all the High Courts to adopt and notify a Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centre (VWDC) scheme within two months from the date of this Order unless a scheme has already been notified. The High Courts which have an already existing VWDC scheme in action were directed to make suitable modifications with respect to the present Order.
The Bench further appointed former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Gita Mittal, as Chairperson of the committee who will take charge of an all India VWDC training program for managing such centers and sensitizing all the stakeholders.
The Apex Court further asked each High Court to estimate the costs for setting up at least 1 VWDC establishment in each district and also to decide upon the optimal number of VWDCs required in their state. For this, each High Court was asked to set up their own in-house VWDC committee. Based on the findings of the committee, the State shall expeditiously sanction the requisite funds within 3 months from the date of submission of the proposals.
Supreme Court also referred to its verdict of 1996 in which similar directions were passed, then in 2004 and in 2017, when it had asked all the High Courts of the country to adopt the guidelines prepared by the Delhi High Court in 2017 for vulnerable witnesses.