Witness Protection in Contemporary Society

Abstract

Witnesses play a vital role in the administration of Justice. They help judiciary to arrive at a decision in a given case. Intimidating of witnesses in the cases where the accused is a powerful person is common in India. In order to uphold the idea of fair trial it is very important to ensure the protection to witness. Insufficient means for protection of witness can be one of the causes for high rate of acquittal in India. The article is dealing with the significance of witness protection. Special focus is placed on various legal provisions which are in some manner relating to the safety of the witness. Further the article focuses on important judicial pronouncement wherein the courts have tried to provide certain guidelines to tackle the issue of witness protection. The article focuses on the aspect of video conferencing which can be one of the methods adopted for witness protection. Furthermore, the article will stress on the laws enacted in other developed countries such as Canada, United Kingdom and United States of America to deal with the issue of witness protection. Such comparative analysis is helpful in deriving certain positive measures which India could adopt to deal with the issue of witness protection.