Exploring Jurisprudential Foundations Of Victim-Offender Mediation And Its Incorporation Under Indian Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Victims of offences feel progressively ousted and alienated by the justice delivery system. Victims abused by criminality are victimized additionally during the time spent getting justice. Outcome of justice process is also insufficient to cater justice to the victims. In no way it can be labelled as a system that does holistic justice to all stakeholders. The process of healing the victim from the imprints of offence is non-existent in our legal system. Justice system administering criminal justice are often referred to as curative systems but restoration of victim is neither an avenue of focus of the system nor it is in any way offered. A systematized and controlled dialogue between the victim and the offender that ensures that victim attains a sense of justice and offender realizes the guilt and takes the responsibility of the same. Traditionally, mediation is seldom used as a method of dispute resolution. In criminal law, the usage is almost negligible. In some traditions as a matter of custom and over past few decades in some countries, mediation between victim and offender has yielded good results.  The idea of mediation is to develop an ecosystem where the victim is given an opportunity to articulate the impact of the crime upon him while at the same time allowing the offender to show repentance for act committed by him.

This research is an attempt to explore into the idea of having a mediation dialogue between the victim and offender. Such a conception is an attack on traditional idea of criminal justice system and many a time this approach has received massive criticism and an outright rejection. However, as we endorse the idea of effective restoration of victims as an element of progressive reformation of criminal justice system, the victim offender mediation dialogue is a subtle outcome of this larger cause. This work is an attempt to trace down the jurisprudential basis and origins of victim-offender mediation, showcase its relevance in contemporary times and how such an approach may be incorporated within the Indian Criminal Justice system. The researcher has visited the law relating to this approach of restoration in other jurisdictions and has suggested the best practices and procedures that can be incorporated in Indian legal system to that would give a victim centric approach the entire process.