Where is the Justice For Victims of Acid Attacks in India? 

Amendments to law and a judgment of the Supreme Court addressing acid attacks have failed to stop these crimes against women. SUKHMAN SANDHU argues that the state must engage in social awareness on gender issues to fulfill the potential of laws.

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THE Gonda Acid Attack case, where three minor sisters were attacked with acid in the middle of the night and suffered  5 to 30 percent burns, raises questions of the ineffective implementation of laws.

Violence against women has been rising despite numerous laws in place designed to stop it. This is mainly due to the reluctance of public authorities to participate and solve matters and this results in a rise of crimes against women without deterrence.

Acid attacks are exceptionally horrifying in nature as the perpetrator intends to disfigure and cause mental and physical agony to the victim.

The consequences faced by the victims of acid attacks is that they live a life of seclusion in society. They are denied employment opportunities and there exists inherent and perpetual discrimination towards them because of their appearance, leading them to be termed as 'social outcasts' depriving them of their life and personal liberty.

Common reasons that come forward are ones where the aggressor feels a serious threat to his masculinity. It could be instances of refusal to a marriage proposal, non-payment of dowry demands, or refusal to grant sexual favours.

The Law Commission of India in its 226th report published in 2009 highlighted the need of adding 'acid attacks' as a separate offence in the IPC, proposed an enhancement of punishment for causing acid attacks. This was in lieu that the offence of 'grievous hurt' does not match the gravity of offences related to acid attacks. Further, it called for separate legislation called the Victim Compensation Fund Scheme for the purposes of rehabilitation of acid attack survivors.

Resultantly, Sections 326 A and 326 B were added in the Indian Penal Code through The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013. The sections now specifically criminalised acid attacks and the attempted acid attacks.

The punishment in the case of Section 326 A (Voluntarily throwing or attempting to throw acid, etc.) was the imprisonment of not less than ten years, which could be extended to life imprisonment and a fine. Further, according to Section 326 B (Voluntarily throwing or attempting to throw acid.), the attempts of throwing acid were criminalized and made punishable with an imprisonment of not less than five years which could be extended to seven years, along with a fine.

In the landmark judgment of  Laxmi v. Union of India in 2015, the Supreme Court laid down strict guidelines for the state governments to frame stringent regulations regarding the sale and purchase of over the counter acid, in hopes of reducing the occurrence of acid attacks. The court has also framed guidelines regarding emergency medical response and fixed a quantum of compensation for the victims.

Moreover, recently the Supreme Court has also opined the gravity of acid attacks as being more than that of murders as they are "uncivilized and heartless crimes" and that the convicts of such crimes do not deserve any clemency.

Despite these changes, there are approximately 200 reported cases of acid attacks annually, according to the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) 2019 report. In a study conducted by Thomas Reuters Foundation, it was found that out of 55 case studies of acid attacks, only one case had the reference to the procurement of acid and no action was taken against the seller in any of the other cases.

Moreover, the redressal mechanism appears to be ineffective because as many as 297 cases out of a total of 417 cases from 2018 were carried forward to 2019.

Talking about cases in the trial during 2019, a mere 121 were brought to court, making it a total of 418 cases to be tried by the court in 2019. This indicates that the case disposal rate is low.

Proper and speedy redressal to the victims of acid attack is the need of the hour.

There have been some positive instances as well wherein the District Legal Services Authority took suo moto cognizance of the case presented before the Criminal Injury Compensation Board which has awarded compensations of Rs. 25 lakhs to the victims of acid attacks. It helped in instilling some faith in the system. However, the overall picture still remains rather bleak when it comes to the redressal and rehabilitation of the victims.

In light of the data, it can be concluded that though the laws have been effectively amended there exists a lacuna when it comes to the question of proper implementation of the laws.

The pendency of judicial proceedings, prolonged for years, before providing compensation to the victims of the acid attacks,  delays the intent behind redressal to the victims.

So, the main question lies as to what needs to be done to help address the problem effectively. Since gendered violence is woven intricately into the Indian societal structure, it is only fair to implement social awareness campaigns to help raise awareness at the grass-root level.

Gendered violence against women will not be addressed unless women are brought to the same pedestal as men via public participation, open dialogues, education and awareness, and proper implementation and adjudication of laws.

(Sukhman Sandhu is a law student at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab. The views are personal.)