Ahmedabad: Courts must not lose sight of victims even as efforts in criminal proceedings focus on sympathies for the accused, said Gujarat High Court on Monday, directing Gujarat govt to compensate victims of the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts.A division bench of Justice A Y Kogje and Justice S J Dave ordered the state to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the 56 people killed in the blasts, Rs 5 lakh to every victim who suffered grievous injuries and Rs 1 lakh to those who sustained simple injuries. The court directed govt to disburse the compensation by March 31, 2027.The directions form part of the high court’s judgement, upholding the trial court’s verdict sentencing 38 convicts to death and awarding life imprisonment to 11 others in the serial blasts case. The bench flagged how victims remained “invisible” during court proceedings.It stated, “A trend is in vogue to be susceptible to clever defence arguments and misplace sympathies that the court may be driven to think only about the accused who is before the court, day in and day out. However, the victim is often hidden and most of the time, covered under the prosecution, is never visible.”Referring to the serial blasts case, the bench further said, “Here also, no appeals against the acquittals and absolutely no representation of the large number of victims and no effort by the state to ask them whether they want to be represented by legal aid. Whereas, a tall order is made out, whether the accused is given or offered legal aid at the cost of the taxpayers’ money certainly cannot be treated as an aspiration of a civilised society wedded to the rule of law and fair criminal justice system. Therefore, the court is inclined to direct the state to pay compensation to the victims of this terror attack.”
