DOUBLE HARM: GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM’S ROLE IN RE-TRAUMATIZATION

INTRODUCTION

The problem of gender-based violence (GBV) is a severe human rights issue in India, and its victims are subject to trauma in most cases. Secondary harm can be experienced through the justice system (police, courts, etc) through re-traumatization. To overturn post-colonial laws, in July 2024, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) were passed (to replace the colonial-era laws), to offer quicker and person-centered justice. However, the recent cases have demonstrated that despite that, employees continue to suffer delay, humiliation, and lack of safety, including the West Bengal student rape-murder (2024) or assaults on victims of sexual assault in Manipur (2023-24).

THE NATURE OF RE-TRAUMATIZATION

Legal action is often termed by survivors as a second attack because the process may still be able to open wounds that have already been closed a long time ago by the primary hostility. Re-traumatization takes place when they are forced to give testimony several times and experience trauma. The courts are places that get hostile, and the victim-blaming compromises the dignity and credibility of the courts. Prolonged proceedings prolong the suffering of victims, and threats by known criminals or their friends compromise the culture of safety for victims who are now frightened by the process of prosecution instead of finding healing in the process.

CASE STUDIES: WHEN JUSTICE BECOMES TRAUMA

1. WEST BENGAL STUDENT RAPE-MURDER (2024)

In August 2024, a student was raped and killed in Kolkata. People were furious not only with the crime but with the way police managed things. The FIR was delayed, and important evidence, such as the phone of the victim, was taken late. These failures caused the family to repeat statements repeatedly, which added to the grief. Even BNSS, 2023, requires that any such sexual offence should be investigated within two months, but the loophole between law and practice was demonstrated by lapses in practice.

2. MANIPUR SEXUAL ASSAULTS (2023–24)

Manipur videos caught women being stripped and attacked in an act of ethnic violence. According to survivors, their appearance in court was even more frightening than the attack itself. Although BSA, 2023 prohibits inquiring about a survivor of rape regarding their allegations of having had another sexual partner, lawyers tried to take advantage of it and requested information about their character. Survivors further claimed that they were not safe since the people were supporting the accused persons in court.

3. THE SHADOW OF KATHUA (2018)

The Kathua case still hangs like a dark cloud. The family of the victim was sent away by threats. Similar expressions were raised by families in Bengal and Manipur in 2024, proving that the Witness Protection Scheme (2018) remains a weak practice.

DATA ON PENDENCY AND DELAYS:

According to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB 2023 report, structural problems in the cases of sexual offence remain unchanged. Worryingly, 89 per cent of rape cases still await trial, with only about 27 per cent being convicted, meaning that the majority of those who are raped never get to see justice applied. Moreover, the average period of trial extends to 2-3 years, in the course of which the survivors are compelled to visit several court sittings and be forced to relive their trauma several times. Therefore, despite the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) laying down severe penalties for such offences, systematic slackness demonstrates and further prolongs the miseries of survivors.

NEW CODES VS. LIVED REALITY

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 enhances the penalties against sexual offences: section 63-70 in the BNS introduces stricter penalties, including gang rape of minors. Practically, however, survivors are not always able to gain as a result of weak investigations and delays in the system that lengthen and weaken, so far as deterrence is concerned. Likewise, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (2023) provided tight timeframes, electronic FIRs, on-time notification of victims, and mechanisms, but the delays continue in such states as West Bengal and Manipur, as victims are not informed. The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023 bans investigation into sexual background in survivors, and BSA rulings acknowledge the use of electronic evidence by quickening the course of justice, but in practice, attorneys find ways to keep bypassing these barriers, and courts fail to legalize digital evidence. As a result, even with the good intentions enshrined in progressive legal reforms, the survivors still report having procedural hurdles and experiencing emotional distress.

TOWARDS TRAUMA-INFORMED JUSTICE

1. JUDICIAL AND POLICE SENSITIZATION

Only in the case of training in the field of trauma-informed practices in the form of dignity towards survivors, the success of BNS, BNSS, and BSA will be guaranteed.

2. USING TECHNOLOGY AS A SHIELD

BNSS and BSA promote video testimony and electronic recordings. There can be greater application of video depositions; therefore, repetitive in-person appearances are minimized.

3. STRONGER WITNESS PROTECTION

Without India implementing their Witness Protection Scheme of 2018, the survivors still feel at risk of intimidation, which discourages them from telling the truth.

4. SURVIVOR-CENTRIC SUPPORT SYSTEMS

The extension of One-Stop Centres to deal directly with the district courts may offer comprehensive legal, medical as well and psychological services.

5. LEARNING FROM GLOBAL MODELS

In some nations like the United Kingdom, sexual offence survivors are entitled to pre-recorded testimony, eliminating the necessity to have to reappear before the accused in a court. On the same lines, Canada has adopted the trauma-informed courts whereby the emotional health of survivors is paramount in the legal proceedings. The new criminal codes in India, BNS, BNSS, and BSA, serve as the framework under which such innovations could be adopted, which presents the potential to make the justice system more sensitive and survivor-centric.

CONCLUSION

The replacement of codes used in the colonial period by BNS, BNSS, and BSA was historic. But, experience in West Bengal and Manipur can tell us that even the survivors still have to endure a twofold injury - the injury itself and the injury that an unfeeling system makes of the injury.

REFERENCES

 In Re: Alleged Rape and Murder Incident of a Trainee Doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and Related Issues (Supreme Court of India, 20 August 2024) https://indiankanoon.org/doc/41947496/ accessed 09 September 2025.

 FIR No. 2711(10)/2023, Lamphel Police Station, Manipur (April 2024) https://manipurpolice.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/FIR.-No.-271110-2023-LAMPHEL-PS.pdf accessed 10 September 2025

Mohd. Akhtar v State of Jammu and Kashmir (Supreme Court of India, 27 April 2018) (2018) 5 SCC 499 https://indiankanoon.org/doc/62196194/ accessed 11 September 2025

UK Government, ‘Pre-recorded Evidence Improves Rape Victims’ Experience of Court’ (26 April 2021) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pre-recorded-evidence-improves-rape-victims-experience-of-court accessed 13 September 2025

Department of Justice Canada, ‘Trauma-Informed Courts’ (Government of Canada, 2020) https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/trauma/p5.html accessed 13 September 2025