Restorative Justice in India: Examining Alternative Approaches to Punishment and Sentencing in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Indian criminal justice remains organised around a retributive and custodial model in which the State prosecutes, the court punishes, and the victim appears chiefly as a witness. This article examines restorative justice as an alternative or complement to that model. It sets out the theory of restorative justice, identifies its roots in Indian tradition and constitutional values, and maps the existing legal mechanisms that already operate in a restorative register, including compounding of offences, victim compensation, probation, plea bargaining, Lok Adalats and juvenile justice dispositions. It then analyses the judicial response, with attention to the Supreme Court's decisions on quashing and compounding, and the risks that restorative processes pose in cases of gendered violence, unequal power and informal community adjudication. The article argues that India has the building blocks of a restorative system but not a framework: practices are scattered, discretionary and unregulated. It concludes by proposing a statutory framework with eligibility criteria, safeguards, trained facilitation and judicial oversight.