Chief Justice of India Surya Kant will inaugurate a first-of-its-kind ‘Victim Rights Centre’ at the Bihar State Legal Services Authority (BLSA) in Patna on Saturday (September 26, 2026).
The centre would operate from the authority’s premises, with its existing personnel and resources, and through the police, hospitals, child welfare committees, One Stop Centres, State departments and organisations already working in the field. It has been conceived under the guidance of Justice V. Kameswar Rao, Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and patron-in-chief of BLSA along with Justice Sudhir Singh, Judge, Patna High Court and Executive Chairman of the authority, on whose direction the project was approved and put in place. Policy direction for the centre rests with a steering committee chaired by a judge of the Patna High Court. Justice Ajeet Kumar is its first chairman.
At present, there is no single agency that receives the victim, identifies every entitlement available in that case for them and carries each of them to a conclusion. The gap is in coordination and not in the law. Besides, there will be internal timelines for which the centre remains accountable to the authority. A case would be closed only when relief has been obtained and the outcome verified, or when the victim specifies that it should be closed.
Rights given by law therefore go unclaimed. The centre provides a gateway by allowing the victim some space by keeping a record for every case, so that the victim does not have to repeat the account at every counter.
