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Authored by - Isha (Intern at Legal Soch Foundation)
Meta Description - The Calcutta High Court criticises West Bengal’s outdated compensation scheme for acid attack victims, lamenting the state's disconnect from its feminist legacy. The court orders the state to align with the NALSA compensation scheme and awards a victim Rs. 7 lakhs and an additional 3.50 lakhs as mandated under the NALSA scheme.
Keywords: feminist, West Bengal, NALSA
West Bengal has lost touch with its roots as a progressive feminist state, a Calcutta high court said while ensuring the state government’s old-fashioned’ compensation scheme for ‘acid attack victims’.
In its judgement delivered by Justice Shekhar Saraf in the case of Ms. Paramita Bera v. Union of India, the court of first instance of the Calcutta High Court on September 8 recalled that ‘what Bengal thinks now, India will think tomorrow’.
It is regrettable that this state, which was a centre of progressive feminist discourse at one time with the likes of Begum Rokeya Sakawat Hossain, Sarojini Naidu Chattopadhyay, and many others, has lost touch with the history of Bengal as a feminist state, the court said.
The court gave this ruling on the application brought forward by a minor victim of an acid attack seeking compensation under the NALSA compensation scheme for victims/survivors of sexual assault/other crimes, 2018.
The scheme states that the minimum amount of compensation for an acid attack victim is Rs 7 lakh and the maximum amount given is Rs 8 lakh, with an additional compensation of 50 percent if the victim is under the age of 18.
The judge noted that in 2018 in Nipun Saxena vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court had ordered all states to adhere to the best practices set out in the NALSA’s compensation scheme, but West Bengal appears to have failed to comply with the orders of the Supreme Court to amend its scheme of compensation in accordance with the provisions of the NALSA’s scheme for women victims of assault and other crimes,” said the judge.
The court therefore directed the state government to comply with the judgement of the Supreme Court as soon as possible and formulate a scheme based on NALSA’s compensation scheme within 8 weeks.
In the case at hand, the court directed the state to compensate the petitioner victim with a sum of Rs. 7 lakh and an additional amount of Rs. 3.50 lakh, as prescribed under NALSA’s Scheme. The petitioner was represented by Debashish Banerjee, while the state was represented by Soma Chowdhury.
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