New Delhi, Oct. 12 -- The Supreme Court has ruled that victims of crime have an independent right to seek expeditious completion of criminal trials, holding that they are "definite stakeholders in the criminal justice system" and cannot be denied access to courts on the premise that only the accused or the prosecution can demand a speedy trial.

Setting aside a Delhi high court order that had dismissed a victim's plea for expediting a criminal trial as frivolous and a drain on the judiciary's already overflowing dockets, a bench of justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar held that victims have a vested right to insist on both a speedy and fair trial. The bench clarified that a victim can invoke Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Sur...