Witness Protection

About the Book :

The administration of justice and fair trial is the obligation of the state both under international as well as domestic laws. Witness protection  is indispensable for a fair trial. Protecting witnesses is a duty of the state. This is a fundamental and globally-established principle. Where the state declines to protect witnesses, it denies justice to society. The state must find the people, money and means to do this. A state that talks about witness protection but does not allocate funds and resources for that purpose fails in its duty.  Therefore, states are obliged to provide such protection to the witness to adduce evidence in the court for administration of criminal justice and streamline the criminal justice system in India.  

The present book explains about witnesses, their problems, hostility and assistance. The key objective of the book is to highlight the problems faced by the witnesses in their interaction with criminal justice agencies. Apart from this, the book proposes to examine the witness hostility and associated factors. The need and shape of witness protection relevant to Indian context will also be considered.

  So the objective of the book  is to discuss analytically the problems faced by the witness, the reasons of their hostility and lower rate of conviction, non-availability of witness protection, the present criminal justice system and how the criminal justice administration  of India can be reformed to check the hostility of the witness and enhance the conviction rate . The need of the hour is to have a comprehensive legislation on witness protection and proposal to enact a law on the basis of the directions and guidelines of the various High Courts and Supreme Court of India, and all law prevailing in other countries in this context and the suggestions and recommendations given by various Law Commissions and Committees which may be implemented to streamline our criminal justice administration.

About Author :

Dr. Meena Ketan Sahu presently working as Reader, Head & Dean of the P.G.Department of Law, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Burla , Odisha . Dr. Sahu has had an outstanding career with LL.M and Ph.D from Berhampur University, Odisha He has worked as the part-time lecturer in law in Jeypore Law College, Jeypore, Koraput, Odisha, as Lecturer in Law at Midnapore Law College, Midnapore, West Bengal, as Assistant Professor in Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. He is also having Bar experience in District & Sessions Court. Dr. Sahu has been taking keen interest in Criminal Law, Women & Law and Human Rights. He has been the faculty coordinator of Legal & Social Services Committee (LSSC) at Hidayatullah National Law University, (HNLU) Raipur , Member of Academic Support Committee and various other committees at HNLU. At present he is member of Senate, Academic Council, Faculty representative of anti-raging committee and member of other committees, Teacher-in-charge of Legal Aid Clinic and former Public Information Officer(P I O) of Sambalpur University, Recourse person of Academic Staff College, Sambalpur University. He has to his credit authorship of ten articles and papers in various reputed national journals and chapters in edited books. He has attended many national and international seminars and presented papers. He has also organized many National and International seminars and workshops on law. M.K.Sahu has been taking keen interest in Legal Education and Legal Aid Programme and has organized legal literacy camps at various places in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.