April 23,2018:
On Monday, Delhi HC asked the Centre if it had done any research or scientific assessment before coming out with an ordinance to award death penalty for rape of girls below the age of 12.
High Court Bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar was dealing with an old PIL that challenged Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 in which a penal provision minimum of the seven years of jail term for a rape convict was included and Court’s discretion to award less than that was taken away.
Bench asked Government that,“Did you carry out any study, any scientific assessment that death penalty is a deterrent to rape? Have you thought of the consequences to the victim? How many offenders would allow their victims to survive now that rape and murder have the same punishment”.
Union Cabinet has cleared Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2018, which proposes stringent punishments, ranging from a minimum of 20 years to life term or death, for rape of girls under the age of 12 years.
The Ordinance states that, If the victim is less than 16 years and more than 12 years, the ordinance has increased the minimum punishment from 10 years to 20 years and the maximum has been set at imprisonment for the rest of the convict’s life.
Centre’s decision came in the wake of a nationwide outrage over cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and Surat in Gujarat, and the rape of a girl in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.
High Court stated that Government was “not even looking at the root cause” or “educating people” as the offenders are often found to be below the age of 18 years and in majority of the cases, the perpetrator is someone from the family or known to them.
President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the ordinance for changes in Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
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