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• WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM FREE

The quality of the statements given by a witness also determines the pace of a particular case.

WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM FREE

A witness must depose without force, fear and pressure and out of his or her own free will and consent. Therefore, the truthfulness of the witness’s testimony becomes the cornerstone of justice and hence the witness is made to offer statement under oath. ”Ī witness is one of the indispensible parts of the criminal justice system, as his stand determines the very backbone of the decision of the case. As the most direct mode of acquiring knowledge of an event is by seeing it, “witness” has acquired the sense of a person who is present at and observes a transaction. īlack’s Law Dictionary gives the following definition: “ In the primary sense of the word, a witness is a person who has knowledge of an event. To witness is to experience important events or changes, to see things happen. The word has its origin in Old English word ‘witnes’ which means ‘ attestation of fact, event, and so on, from personal knowledge,’ also ‘ one who so testifies,’ originally “knowledge, wit,” formed from wit (n.) + – ness. The ordinary meaning of the term “ witness” is a person present at some event and able to give information about it.

What India needs at present is a Witness Protection programme that can guarantee that witnesses will not be harmed in any way and to ensure that justice and truth prevails in the largest democracy in the world. The situation gets further aggravated when he realises that there is no legal obligation by the state for extending any security, if need arises. In most cases involving influential people, it has been regular practice for witnesses to retract from their original statements or to go into hiding because of intimidation and threat to life and destruction of property.

If witnesses are deposing under fear or intimidation or for favour or allurement, the foundation of administration of justice not only gets weakened, but it may even get obliterated.” “ The edifice of administration of justice is based upon witnesses coming forward and deposing without fear or favour, without intimidation or allurements in Court of law. Further it analyses witness protection in India, the reasons for failure and finally suggestions to improve it.” INTRODUCTION This paper discusses the concept of witness protection, and talks about programmes in a few countries. Infrastructure and implementation continue to be poor and there are still a vast number of cases where the witnesses turn hostile. Sadly, India still lacks a well-functioning witness protection programme despite various attempts to improve it.

There are witness protection programmes in a large number of countries all over the world. Hence, it becomes very important to protect the witnesses so that they do not get intimidated or fear revealing the truth in court. Due to this, the parties often threaten the witnesses, turning them hostile and interfering with the fair administration of justice. “ Editor’s Note: In any criminal case, the witness plays a pivotal role in determining the final outcome. By Naveena Varghese, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi