PIL seeking guidelines for compensation to victims of malicious prosecution: SC sends notice to Centre

THE Supreme Court Tuesday issued notice to the Central Government in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking framing of guidelines to award compensation to victims of false and malicious prosecutions.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit, Indira Banerjee, and KM Joseph, however, refused to send notices to state governments and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The bench was of the opinion that at this juncture only the Centre required notice.

It also made clear that that the notice was being issued only on the first prayer to the writ petition.

The court also tagged the petition filed by BJP leader Kapil Mishra with Upadhyay's petition.

Mishra had filed a PIL in the backdrop of a recent case in which the Allahabad High Court found a rape convict Vishnu Tiwari innocent. Tiwari had already undergone jail for 20 years.

Senior Advocates Vijay Hansaria and Arijit Prasad represented the petitioners respectively.