Extreme sexual assault, victim’s murder to invite death rap or life
TEAM HERALD
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NEW DELHI: Going beyond the recommendations of the former Chief Justice of India J S Verma-headed jurists’ panel, the government on Friday heeded to the national public outcry by enacting an ordinance to amend the criminal law by prescribing the death sentence or jail term spanning the lifetime of the convicts in extreme cases of sexual assault and murder of the victim.
Instead of limiting it to the cases of “rape,” the government has preferred to cover all crimes of “sexual assault” to include acid attacks, use of criminal force, stalking, harassment at work, trafficking and even the sexual assault in a marriage as recommended by the panel. The ordinance, expected to be promulgated on Saturday or maybe late Friday night, is said to cover almost all the recommendations of the panel.
A special meeting of the Union Cabinet was convened to issue the ordinance in deference to Justice Verma’s plea to match his team’s commitment in submitting the 600-page report in record 29 days by enforcing the changes in the criminal laws without waiting for the parliament session.
Moved by his appeal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called in Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Finance Minister P Chidambaram Thursday night to discuss modalities for immediately acting on the report. Sources said the inputs of the law and women’s ministries were called in to quickly draft the ordinance.
While recommending tougher laws for sexual offenders, the Verma panel had steered clear of recommending the death sentence, saying even women’s groups fighting on the issue for years were against it. Sources said the government, however, felt those accused of rape and murder of women deserve the harshest punishment in terms of capital punishment or life time in jail. In case of other rape and sexual assault cases, the present upper limit of 20 years of sentence is not changed.
Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, who took the ordinance to the cabinet, said: “We have diligently applied our mind to various recommendations of the Verma committee and the Criminal Amendment Bill and a final view will emerge after the cabinet meeting.” He added that the government was not taking a view on the demand to lower the age of the juvenile from 18 to 16 as widely demanded as the most brutal among six arrested for the gang-rape of December 16 may escape with lighter punishment because of his age.
Only three days ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had written to Justice Verma assuring him that “we will be prompt in pursuing the recommendations of the committee.” The government had set up a three-member committee of jurists under Justice Verma to review the existing laws in the wake of a public anger surging over the gang-rape and murder of a physiotherapy student in a running bus in Delhi in December.
The government has already sent the Verma panel report to the parliamentary standing committee of the Home Ministry examining a pending bill on amendments in the criminal laws. It intends to ask parliament to discuss the report, but felt an ordinance was urgently required to show the resolve against such heinous crimes instead of sitting on the technical excuse that the ordinance cannot be promulgated when the Parliament session is just three weeks away. The Budget Session of parliament begins on February 21.
