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Usually one merely uses the phrase "innocent victims" in general conversation. The phrase is self-explanatory. An innocent victim is a person who suffers for the consequences of something he did not do.

The recent decision of the Legal Profession Qualifying Board to set aside this year's Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP) examination provides a classic example of a situation where people become innocent victims and are caught in a Catch 22 situation and are helpless.

If in the days ahead the decision is set aside completely or in part, it will no doubt be of great comfort to those concerned, but they will still have been innocent victims for the trauma they would have undergone.

If the entire decision is not set aside, the aggrieved who may want to challenge the decision in the courts of law will be facing an uncertain future given the time that it takes for litigation and appeal. If the decision is against them they may face a situation where not only have they lost time but they also have to go through the hassle of sitting for the CLP exam again.

The decision made to annul the results even if it is upheld in part because there was a leakage of the exam questions is certainly unjust to the students who studied diligently for the examination. A large number would not have had access to the examination papers except on the day of the exam. The fault clearly lies on those who prepared or kept the exam papers,; yet the consequences fall on someone else.

While the annulment of the CLP examination has received extensive publicity, the CLP students are not the only innocent victims in our society. Every now and then incidents occur which are unjust to individuals. These peoples are also sometimes unjustly treated by the system and it appears that there is no law to protect them.

House buyers

Another example of innocent victims are house buyers who find themselves unable to occupy the property they have purchased because the Certificates of Fitness (CF) have not been issued by the relevant authority. The house buyer suffers a loss because he has to rent another property to live in and if the new property is to be rented out, he will suffer a loss in expected rental.

In most cases the house buyer is told by the housing developer that the CF cannot be obtained because of a delay on the part of the authorities. When approached, the authorities will say that it is the housing developer who has not complied with certain requirements.

These are all matters beyond the control of the house buyer but because the way the authorities act and the law is structured, the housing developer is allowed to receive almost the full purchase price based on certificates which are issued to state the stage of developments of the building.

So, while the authorities and the housing developer conveniently blame each other the house buyer is made to pay the instalments or interest on a property that he cannot occupy through no fault of his own and those who are to blame get away scot free!

Parking woes

Yet another instance where people end up being innocent victims is when their cars are towed away by operators who are licensed by Kuala Lumpur City Hall purportedly on the ground that they are causing obstruction. A person who finds his car missing may think it is stolen, but later discovers that is was towed away by City Hall operators.

While it would be justified for such actions to be taken if a vehicle is causing obstruction, it is difficult to understand the towing away of vehicles when there is no obstruction caused. Furthermore vehicles have been towed away in areas where there is no sign to indicate that it is a tow area.

Clearly the objectives of the operators in such instances is to generate more income for themselves. The irony is that some operators do not go to areas where there is acute obstruction and sometimes they themselves cause obstruction while they park their tow trucks in the middle of the road while having teh tarik by the roadside.

Thus it will seen that many people are innocent victims in different situations in the way our system operates. Those who become victims of floods, fires and land slides are often the victims of work not properly supervised by contractors and consultants. These contractors and consultants collect their fees when the work is completed and the public are left to suffer the consequences much later and therefore become innocent victims.

Coming back to the CLP case, it serves as a reminder of the many unjust situations which exist in our society. There have been instances in school examinations where students had to re-sit certain papers. They are innocent victims too but the matter did not receive such wide media coverage.