Another rape victim dies.

The tragedy is a blight on all humanity and the rage of the nation should act as a clarion call. We cannot continue to remain silent spectators unmoved and oblivious of the increasing number of rapes and violent crimes against women.

Do we have a really long way to go to make this country safe for women to live and leave the confines of their homes for education and work?

It’s time to remind our Judiciary and Governments that the challenges before them will not vanish with time. Political and Judicial systems’ greatest hope is that we will forget. But our only redemption is if we do not forget.

As a lawyer, two things strike me with trepidation and amazement   the precipitate and chronic tinkering with the law by the bureaucrats who many a time are the unacknowledged legistators of India and the unaesthesised patience of the Indian public.

There is no let up in atrocities against women. Unfortunately, the government seems to treat rape as just one of the crimes, where in fact it is a collective murder of a female. Everyday one is hearing and reading about girls getting molested and raped and the headlines of rape cases and gang rapes continue to be reported across our country and are becoming all too frequent.

Punishments for those committing such crimes are seldom and rarely heard. The Uttar Pradesh and Telangana Chief Ministers have announced setting up of a Fast Track Court for expeditious trial. Why now so late?

Setting up Fast Track Courts was the responsibility of the State Governments. The concept of Fast Track Courts is based on Article 21 of our Constitution which guarantees speedy trials. States have the legal obligation to prevent, protect and punish violence against women and States have the responsibility to uphold standards of due diligence and take steps to fulfil their responsibility to protect women from abuses. Yet such violence is too often ignored and rarely punished. What is needed is prescribing time bound procedures for the Fast Track Courts at every stage of the trial as is the case in many Western countries.

Now, with the Chief Ministers announcing setting up Fast Track Courts for expeditious trials….how many States in reality have Fast Track Courts and the number of Judges appointed in this regard?

In 2015 I had filed a petition before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India and Judges of the Supreme Court of India asking them to issue directions to all State governments to file an affidavit within two weeks on the actual figures as to how many Fast Track Courts have been established and the number of Judges appointed in this regard. The response to my petition submitted in 2015 remains a myth.

This is no time to remain silent. Whilst many rape victims struggle every moment to come to terms with life, awaiting justice for decade with many of them stopped pursuing cases, the rapists who tormented them are either free… out on bail or in jails enjoying the authority’s hospitality.

The Indian judiciary needs to sincerely step up efforts to address the rape incidents in a timely and sensitive manner and ensure that investigations are going at requisite pace. State governments must be exhorted to pay utmost attention and treat the issue on a high importance note.

Taking a look at our democracy, the Constitution government breeds politicians. The practice of professional art enables our politicians to win elections, but it fails to enable them to win the electorates respect. The electorate elects them yet despises them, and the discrediting of the politicians discredits the constitutional political regime, which enables the politicians   through the electorates fault to be elected to offices of which they are unworthy. Changes overnight become politically respectable. The transformation underlines both the necessity and the weakness of our people. The credibility gap between politicians’ pretences and their performances is getting wider and wider, day by day.

(The writer is an advocate)