Witness Protection

Contents: Preface. Foreword. 1. Introduction. 2. Witness protection problems and perspectives in India. 3. Comparative aspects of witness protection law. 4. Witness protection: law and legislative efforts in India. 5. Precedents in witness protection and the judicial process in India. 6. Suggestions and conclusion. Bibliography.

The administration of justice and fair trial is the obligation of the state both under international as well as domestic laws. Witness protection is indispensable for a fair trial. Protecting witnesses is a duty of the state. This is a fundamental and globally-established principle. Where the state declines to protect witnesses, it denies justice to society. The state must find the people, money and means to do this. A state that talks about witness protection but does not allocate funds and resources for that purpose fails in its duty. Therefore, states are obliged to provide such protection to the witness to adduce evidence in the court for administration of criminal justice and streamline the criminal justice system in India.

The present book explains about witnesses, their problems, hostility and assistance. The key objective of the book is to highlight the problems faced by the witnesses in their interaction with criminal justice agencies. Apart from this the book proposes to examine the witness hostility and associated factors. The need and shape of witness protection relevant to Indian context will also be considered.

So the objective of the book is to discuss analytically the problems faced by the witness, the reasons of their hostility and lower rate of conviction, non-availability of witness protection, the present criminal justice administration of India can be reformed to check the hostility of the witness and enhance the conviction rate. The need of the hour is to have a comprehensive legislation on witness protection and proposal to enact a law on the basis of the directions and guidelines of the various High Courts and Supreme Court of India, and all law prevailing in other countries in this context and the suggestions and recommendations given by various Law Commissions and Committees which may be implemented to streamline our criminal justice administration. (jacket)