Restorative Justice: The New Paradigm in the Province of Justice in India?

Abstract

The ‘thoughts’ about Justice are so divergent and equivocal that any attempt to design the panacea within the rubric of Justice would be a perfect disharmony. The scholastic experiments so far being continued to achieve the utilitarianism in the province of Justice are being concluded to the adage, ‘every justice brings an injustice’. Hence, the intellectual bickering on diverse perspectives with the changing needs of the society make the evolutionary process to achieve justice dynamic. The present paper delves into the provinces or doctrines or ideas or concepts of Restorative Justice not to figure out the flaws in the same rather to make a journey over the assumptions of Restorative Justice in Criminal Justice Administration, particularly in India. The attempt of Restorative Justice, precisely, apart from the perpetrators and victims, is to accommodate within the fold of the legal frameworks to redress the harm or injury caused to the communities and with the view of reforming and reintegrating contributory role from the ends of communities in upholding social justice as well. Telling incidents about restorative justice inspires more liberalization of civil liberties in the framework of administration of justice while variegated growing concern about public-order and safety irritates the comparison for effective administration between such liberalized approach and pragmatic approach. Again, the attempt to establish peaceful relations among the members of the communities, social control, to ensure equality and cultural expectations or even to reduce recidivism have been mobilizing the disproportionate socio-economic or socio-cultural or even socio-political factors, like communal politics, casteism, etc. and perpetuate conflicts among different communities in any multicultural country like India.