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#SalmanKhanVerdict: Why hit-and-run victims are still the biggest losers

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Shaguna Gahilote
Shaguna GahiloteMay 08, 2015 | 12:43

#SalmanKhanVerdict: Why hit-and-run victims are still the biggest losers

During a conversation with my ten-year-old nephew, following the Salman Khan verdict, I asked him to imagine a situation in school:

Situation: "Your friend eats your tiffin and your teacher punishes him by asking him to stand outside for four classes and missing four game periods in the week".

Child: "That's too much of a punishment"

I ask him, then what should the solution be?

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Child: "Maximum he should be asked to take one round of the field and he should give me his tiffin to eat."

Me: "He did not get his tiffin and hence he ate yours."

Child: "Well then he should give me money for canteen to buy food."

Me: "He does not even have money that is why he ate your food."

Child: "This is complicated, he should then ask from his friends and give me food."

Well, in the first case, when the teacher punished the child, it reflects our legal system. A crime is committed, the state finds the offender and pronounces punishment. So the offender is thrown out (in a real situation, in jail, and in this case, out of the classroom) and denied a place where he or she can be part of the society. The victim who loses his tiffin, gets justice by the offender being punished but he does not get his tiffin and thus stays hungry for the rest of the day but justice is delivered (and in good time). So in the real world if this system works, the offender is denied rights and also loses his friend and is tabooed for life. The victim gets nothing except so called justice but no relief. And the law of the land is upheld. Heil liberty and justice!

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However, if we are to go with the solution offered by the child, it falls in the category of restorative justice. Where the victim is consulted, his need is understood and a solution found and justice delivered without outcasting the offender, instead by making him accept his mistake and by getting the community to work towards finding a solution.

Now let's discuss the Salman Khan verdict, with due respect to the judicial system in our country and this humble piece is in no manner a comment on this particular case or a means to disrespect judiciary, I wish to understand… As justice was delivered, why are the victims left feeling, "what did we get out of it?" This order, like they have told the press, does not mean much to them. Should we then be asking ourselves if the legal system is flawed considering neither the offender nor the victim agrees with it, and the community and its needs remain unacknowledged. After the 2002 American Bakery case, people have not stopped sleeping on pavements, scores and scores are still finding a place to rest in the night, on pavements and road dividers. The problem of homelessness remains where it was, 13 years ago. It remains even after the Salman Khan verdict on May 6, 2015. Victims who survived the crash, were left crippled, lost their dignity to work - meanwhile, what became of the offender? The system pushed him to live with a case for 13 years and perhaps look for an escape. So who is this system helping then?

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What justice is this? For whom? Who does it satisfy? Why does the state take over from the victim? When a crime is committed, why is it against the state and not against the victim? Why is it only about breaking the law and punishing the guilty? Why can't it be about getting justice for the victim?

Instead, in this case, had we resorted to restorative justice, we may have achieved a solution.

First: Instead of making offenders wary of the legal system, we need to encourage them to come forward and own up to their mistakes.

Second: Hear the victim's need and see how justice can be done to them. The victim's needs are a crucial aspect, but sadly, it's often found missing in the Western legal system which we have adopted in India. Our country, with its 5,000-year-old ancient wisdom, worked on justice differently. It believed in delivering justice to the victim, whether it was in our religious texts of Ramayana or Mahabharata, the story of Birbal or Mullah Nasaruddin, or Vikramaditya or the Panchatantra. Why do we now resort to Western patterns?

Third: Why and how does the state become bigger than the individual when the state's sole role is to protect the rights of an individual? So how is breaking the law bigger than finding a solution to the victim.

So what happens in the Salman Khan case? By putting Salman Khan behind bars for five years you ensure that his career is over by the time he comes out of prison. This is usual when justice is delivered, it ensures that instead of reforming or giving a chance to the offender to improve, the system ensures that they are finished for life and are denied a life of dignity, post committing a crime - however petty it may be.

The victim's situation in this particular case does not change. In fact, those who were left crippled or those who lost providers, also lost their future. A person like Salman Khan who could have provided some relief by means of financial support is also denied a chance to do so (by the court and otherwise) with the matter remaining sub judice now for 13 years. The court also did not ask for a substantial compensation. There are several lives involved here whose future has been permanently lost.

For the community at large, its people still sleep on pavements and other people still crush them, drunk driving cases have not gone down, nor has the sales of expensive SUVs unsuitable for Indian roads, or that of alcohol.

With due respect to the honourable courts, perhaps there could have been a few other possible options for the Salman Khan verdict. What if we tried this: Salman Khan was given one-year rigorous punishment and denied from meeting family and friends except in case of medical emergency. Told to undertake community service, especially in night shelters, orphanages and with disabled people. He could have been asked to continue the community service for the next ten years as well as made part of a campaign against drunk driving. The victims could have been compensated depending on their needs - of a house, work, or whatever helped them get back a life of dignity. Salman Khan may also have been asked to support the government's effort to build night shelters.

This, then, also brings us to the other bigger question: first, should there not be a parallel case also filed against the government of Maharashtra or the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for not providing night shelters or housing for the poor? Is it not the responsibility of the state to provide a life of dignity to its citizens? As per Article 21 of the Constitution, every Indian has to be provided with the right to live with human dignity. How is sleeping on a pavement a life with human dignity? Is the state not at fault? Does it not have to take the responsibility of pushing its people to a life of humiliation and endangering their lives by forcing them to sleep on pavements?

The second question is the whole issue of builders and the land Bill. Why are we clearing so much land for builders when these builders are not providing houses that the poor can buy? Who are these housing societies for? Why do we need to clear farm land for houses costing anything between Rs 25 lakh to several crores when the poor will never have enough money to buy them? We need the government to take care of housing rather than getting builders to earn profits even as the poor sleep under flyovers, and on pavements that they build with their own hands.

Is it time, therefore, that we reviewed our Western legal system and introspected by looking into our own cultural and traditional systems? Is it time to find solutions to a legal system, which is not just opposed to reforming offenders, but also slow and dysfunctional in so many ways?

After six decades and more of freedom, justice to all must have a heart and a soul - not just reams of paperwork that does not recognise reform or rehabilitation.

Last updated: May 08, 2015 | 12:43
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