Our Criminal Justice System Overlooks Victims of Police Torture

Edgar Kaiser Grace Anu

Jun 26 2026

The Global Torture Index 2025 classifies India as a country with “high risk” of torture and ill treatment, and the signed UN Convention Against Torture is yet to be ratified.

oday, June 26 is observed as International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

“Life of a 17-year-old boy was nipped before it blossomed”, stated the Madras High Court in a petition filed by a mother who lost her son to police torture. The entire narration of the order has such poignant details that it would unnerve anyone.  This is the story of thousands of survivors and victims of torture in India, with unheeded calls for a dedicated anti-torture law and a robust apparatus for accountability. On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the burning reckoning should be what our justice system and the human rights machinery offers the survivors and victims of torture and their families.

The forgotten victim

The Indian criminal justice system unapologetically overlooks the plight of survivors of torture or victims’ families. The Indian law is designed in a way that victims are mere witnesses in the state’s pursuit of the perpetrator. The current legal framework does very little in reparation to victims, except for section 396 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita which includes medical aid, but survivors of torture do not benefit from it without a law of torture. Due to Supreme Court rulings, NALSA came up with Victim Compensation Scheme in 2018, but it is limited to women survivors of sexual violence. 

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