Critical Analysis on Witness Protection in Criminal Trial in India

Abstract

In any criminal case, the witness plays an important role in determining the final outcome. Due to this, the parties often threaten the witnesses, turning them hostile and interfering with the fair administration of justice. Hence, it becomes very important to protect the witnesses so that they do not get intimidated and tell the truth in court. There are witness protection programmes in a large number of countries all over the world. But India still lacks a wellfunctioning witness protection programme. There are so many attempts to make programme effective but implementation continue to be poor and still a vast number of cases where the witnesses turn hostile. Reason behind turning hostile is that the witness have no courage to speak against accused because of the threat of life, and especially when the offenders are habitual criminals or having political, economic or muscles power. Keeping this view in mind this research has been undertaken to identify the gaps in the protection of witness under domestic law. Absence of witness protection laws leads to the high rate of crime and low rate of conviction. Therefore enacting the witness protection laws is the immediate need in India.