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The Supreme Court on Friday has agreed to hear a plea seeking direction to the the Central Government to frame Guidelines for Compensation to Victims of Wrongful Prosecution and implement the recommendations of Law Commission Report No-277 on Miscarriage of Justice.

A bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice PS Narasimha has listed the matter for hearing on April 26, 2022.

The PIL filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay stated that, "The absence of effective statutory/legal scheme for providing mandatory compensatory scheme to victims of wrongful malicious. prosecutions and incarceration of innocents, infringes fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14 and 21 of the constitution."

Upadhyay while mentioning the matter before the Court submitted that, "Milords, for the same injury different compensation is provided to different persons. One person gets 5 Lakhs and one gets 50 Lakhs for the same, there has to be uniformity." 

It has been further stated that, "False cases led to suicides of innocents who are victims of police and prosecutorial misconduct, who lose hope and lives of their families destroyed after years of delayed trials due to the non effective machinery which only gets aggravated by denial/reluctance of taking penal actions in a routine manner by the Courts against misconduct of investigating officers and vexatious complainants, mostly under the guile of absence of malice and defense of mistake done in good faith which leads to miscarriage of justice." 

In addition to this, Upadhyay has further sought direction for the the States to implement the Centre's Guideline for Compensation to Victims of Wrongful Prosecution and give compensation to innocent people.

"Centre cannot shy away from its obligation to safeguard and protect the right to life, liberty and dignity to every citizen," the plea added.

Cause Title: Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay Vs. Union of India & Ors.