On Wednesday, Supreme Court judge, Justice Rajesh Bindal stated that preventing a situation where victim compensation has to be provided is important because often such compensation remains a small solace.
Justice Bindal said this while speaking at a book-release event organised in the Delhi High Court.
The books, titled “Evaluation of Compensation Measures for Riot Victims in India” and “Protection of Women’s Rights against Domestic Violence in India”, have been written by Advocates Anil Kathuria and Renu Grover respectively.
Talking about victim compensation, Justice Rajesh Bindal, in a speech given in Hindi, said, “Kisi ki means of earning chali gayi hai. Usko aap kahan se assess karoge? Thik hai, courts ne bahut sare formulas devise kiye hai, time to time woh improve bhi ho rahe hai, aap dekh rahe hai (A person has lost his means of earning. How will you compensate him? Courts have indeed devised certain formulae for providing compensation and these are improving over time).” “When you go in the background of compensation, the key is to prevent a situation where compensation has to be provided because you cannot really compensate anyone and it is often a small solace,” he added.
Justice Bindal stated that the biggest change in the compensation scheme was when the housewives’ income started to be assessed after comparing their roles with the male income earners and where it was found that while a male spouse earned an income after working for around eight hours, a homemaker worked for 16 hours.
He added, “Such value assessment, such comparison resulted in the growth of law”.