Witness Protection Scheme 2018
Topic: Justice Delivery: Subordinate Courts, Tribunals, Legal Aid and Judicial Reforms · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Witness Protection Scheme 2018 protects witnesses who face threats. The Supreme Court approved it in Mahender Chawla (2018). Steps under it include hiding a witness's identity and moving them to a new place. Witnesses who are scared or bribed often change their statements, and many trials collapse as a result. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023, in Section 398, now requires every state to notify such a scheme.
Example
A Class 11 textbook warns that witnesses sometimes change their testimony "to suit the wealthy and the mighty". Under the scheme, a witness threatened by a powerful accused can have their identity hidden or be moved to a safer place so they can testify freely.
Don't confuse with
- Victim compensation scheme (BNSS s.396): this gives money to victims of crime, even if the offender is never traced. The witness scheme gives protection, not compensation.
Related concepts
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023
- Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023
- Malimath Committee
- Mob lynching
- Community service
- Trial in absentia
- Public prosecutor
- Inter-operable Criminal Justice System