New Delhi: Responding to mounting unrest and criticism over the government’s inability to curb sexual crimes against girls, the Centre on Saturday approved an ordinance to introduce death penalty for rapists of children below the age of 12 years, longer jail term for all convicted rapists and a four-month deadline to complete investigation and trial in all rape cases.
The executive order, cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of public outrage over the Kathua rape-and-murder case where the victim was a minor, stipulates increased minimum punishment in all rape cases from seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment, sources said.
The Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, which seeks to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to bring in stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls below 16 and 12 years, will become law when the President gives his assent.
The ordinance provides for stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years with minimum jail term of 20 years which may go up to life term or death sentence. Experts said this would be subject to the Supreme Court’s ruling that a convict be sent to the gallows only in the “rarest of rare” case.
In cases of rape of a girl under 16 years of age, the Ordinance has increased minimum punishment from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to life imprisonment, which means jail term till the convict’s “natural life”. The punishment for gangrape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for life, sources said. An average of four women report rape every hour across the country. Of the 36,000 women who filed police complaints in 2016, 462 were girls below the age of 6, 1,596 between 6 and 12 years old and 6,091 were in the 12-16 age-group.
Experts say harsher punishments are unlikely to make a difference unless government fixes the criminal justice system and ensure culprits are caught and convicted. “I believe that the only deterrent in rape cases is conviction in not more than 90 days. Worldwide we have seen that, more than strict punishment, it is speedy justice that works as a deterrent. I fear that with the death penalty, most people will not report child rapes, as in most cases the accused are family members. The conviction rate will come down further,” Vinod Tikoo, a former member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said.
According to National Crime Records Bureau data, 95 per cent of rapes in India are committed by family members and the conviction rate in rape cases is around 24 per cent.
The Ordinance also provides for speedy investigation and trial.
Investigation of all cases of rape has to be finished within two months, and trial in all rape cases must be completed within two months, officials said. A six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed.
There will also be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years. And judges will have to give public prosecutors 15 days before any bail application is heard.
New fast-track courts will be set up to deal with rape cases and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all police stations and hospitals in the long term.
Apart from enhancing the powers of the judiciary to provide stringent punishment in rape cases, the Cabinet also approved a number of measures to speed up investigations and trial.
Dedicated manpower will be provided for investigation of rape cases in a time-bound manner, new posts of public prosecutors will be created and, eventually, special forensic labs exclusively for rape cases would be established in each state.
“These measures will form part of a new mission mode project to be launched within three months,” sources said.
In his first comments on the incidents of rape of a 17-year-old in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and the sexual assault and murder of an eight-year-old girl Kathua, Jammu, PM Modi had last week said that no criminal will be spared and daughters will get justice.
“Such incidents shake our sensibilities. I want to assure the nation that no criminal will be spared. Justice will be done. Our daughters will get justice,” he had said at an event to inaugurate a B.R. Ambedkar memorial.
