No law pays people who were wrongly prosecuted

What we know

On 31 December 2024, 3,71,440 of India's 5,11,542 prisoners (72.6%) were undertrials, and 9,028 had been held for more than five years. In 2024 courts acquitted or discharged 12.28 lakh people in IPC and BNS cases.

Payment after an acquittal depends on a High Court or the Supreme Court choosing to award compensation under Article 21, or on a civil suit for malicious prosecution, in which the person must prove malice and the absence of reasonable cause. BNSS Section 273 lets a magistrate order a complainant to pay up to ₹50,000, but only in cases magistrates try and only where the accusation had no reasonable ground.

The Law Commission's Report No. 277 (August 2018) proposed special courts in every district to decide claims, interim compensation of ₹25,000 to ₹50,000 for people held more than six months, and payment by the government within 30 days. It was never enacted. In July 2025 (Kattavellai v State of Tamil Nadu) the Supreme Court said such a law is needed, but that making it is Parliament's job. In August 2024 (State of Madhya Pradesh v Bhure) it set aside a High Court order that the State pay ₹3 lakh to an acquitted man, because failure to prove guilt did not establish false implication.

Vishnu Tiwari of Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in 2000 on charges of rape and an offence under the SC/ST Act, sentenced to life in 2003, and acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in 2021. The court said it was "convinced that the accused has been wrongly convicted". He had spent about 20 years in jail, during which his parents and two brothers died. No law entitled him to compensation.

Germany, France, Japan and Norway pay people held in custody whose cases end without a conviction, without asking them to prove their innocence.

Open questions

1. How many people in your district jail were acquitted last year, and how long had each been held?
2. Has any court in your state ordered compensation for wrongful prosecution in the last five years? How much, and was it actually paid?
3. Should payment depend on proving police misconduct, or should every day of custody that ends without a conviction be paid for?
4. What did a case that ended in acquittal cost someone you know, in fees, lost work and hearings attended?

Sources

• NCRB Prison Statistics India 2024
• Law Commission Report No. 277: Wrongful Prosecution (2018)
• LiveLaw: Supreme Court says a law is needed to compensate acquitted prisoners (July 2025)
• Supreme Court: State of Madhya Pradesh v Bhure (August 2024)
• ThePrint: Vishnu Tiwari, acquitted after 20 years in jail (March 2021)