In a reference to the Supreme Court’s unprecedented midnight hearing of Mumbai blasts terror convict Yakub Memon hours before he was hanged to death in 2015, Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said that while the legal machinery worked overtime to give terrorists and hardcore criminals access to justice, there was hardly a mechanism to reach out to their victims.
Survival of families
In his inaugural address at the 15th All India meet of State Legal Service Authorities, Chief Justice Khehar, who is also the patron-in-chief of the authority, said he often wondered what had befallen the victims of rape, sexual assault and acid attacks, many of whom were breadwinners for their family.
“Ours is a strange country. The bigger the criminal, the bigger is the outrage. As we have seen before that the convict in a terrorist crime who has failed up to the Supreme Court and also in his review, can get access to justice in a manner that we extend,” he said.
“I have wondered over the years, what about the victims. I have wondered over the years what about the families which have lost their bread earner. I have wondered over the years what about that acid attack victim who has been defaced and cannot survive the society. I think about rape victims and their lives and I wonder why we don’t reach out to them.”
“I wish to make an appeal to you today as a patron of the organisation. Let us reach out to the victims. Make 2017 a year of the victims,” the CJI said.
