Follow NALSA scheme to compensate child abuse victims: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the special courts to award compensation to sexually abused children on the lines of a NALSA scheme for victims of sexual assaults and acid attacks till the Centre finalises the rulesA bench of Justice Madan B Lokur Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta took into account the fact that the Centre had not framed any rules under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences POCSO Act on the basis of which special courts could award compensation to minor victims and directed that NALSA scheme be used as a guiding factor for the purposeThe National Legal Services Authority NALSA had framed the Compensation Scheme for Women VictimsSurvivors of Sexual AssaultOther Crimes2018 which the top court has acceptedThe bench said we are of the opinion that the NALSA compensation scheme should function as guidelines for special courts under the POCSO Act to award compensation to the victims of sexual abuses until rules are finalised by the central governmentThe court added that the guidelines would come into force across the country from October 2 and it would be gender neutralThe special courts would take into consideration the POCSO Act which is gender neutral as well as the circumstances of the cases while awarding interim compensation to the minor victims of sexual assaults the bench addedThe special courts will also consider that interim compensation thus awarded was not misused or misutilisedThe bench also ordered that wide publicity should be given to the scheme as well as the apex court order on a regular basis till the rules are finalisedOn July 25 the top court had said that NALSAs scheme for compensating victims of sexual assault and acid attacks should be made applicable to child victims of such assaultsThe NALSA scheme gives compensation slabs for victims of sexual assault acid attacks and even loss of foetuses and earmarks a minimum Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh respectively for women who go through a crisis after sexual or acid attacksA minimum of Rs 5 lakh is to be paid in case of loss of life or gang rape and maximum of Rs 10 lakh A minimum of Rs 4 lakh is to be paid in case of rape or unnatural sexual assault with the maximum fixed at Rs 7 lakhIn case of victims of burning and acid attacks the minimum compensation will be Rs 7 lakh for total disfigurement with a maximum of Rs 8 lakh Rs 5 lakh has been fixed in case of 50 per cent burns while the upper limit is Rs 8 lakhFor loss of limb or body part resulting in 80 per cent permanent disability Rs 2 lakh is to be given with Rs 2 lakh in case of grievous physical injuryThe scheme provides that in case of pregnancy on account of rape the victim will get between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh while for miscarriage or loss of fertility due to such assaults the amount will be between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakhAfter the gangrape and murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi on December 16 2012 the Central government had announced the Nirbhaya Fund scheme in 2013 to support state governments and NGOs working for womens safetyThe court was hearing petitions filed after the 2012 case raising concerns over the safety and security of womenEarlier NALSA had told the apex court that hardly 510 per cent of sexual assault victims across the country were able to get compensation under the relevant schemes in various statesCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever