Dealing with Rape & other sexual crimes against women: A quick compilation of suggestions emailed to Justice Verma Committee
Please add your suggestions
and/or reiterate the ones with which you agree, and send by email to
justice.verma@nic.in or through fax at 011-23092675 by 5th Jan, 2013.
We simply can not afford to keep quiet at this juncture. It is
necessary that the committee gets a sizeable cross-section of public
opinion on various dimensions of this complex issue of crime against
women.
Any crime has to be dealt with broadly at 3 levels – Prevention, Deterrence & Justice. Prevention requires Reforms to change attitude & systems on all related fields and implementation of systems. Deterrence comes from fear of consequences of committing a crime, which, in turn, flows from visibility of quick & certain apprehension of the culprit, conviction and severity of punishment. Justice comes from reasonable correspondence of punishment to crime committed
including reform & rehabilitation of the convict in eminently
deserving cases – very discerningly & judiciously based on all
critical dimensions like motivation, provocations, triggers, age &
maturity, residual life out of jail after serving the sentence requiring
the need to bring back the person to the social mainstream etc.
While Police and Administration has the
first responsibility to ensure safety of citizens & quick
apprehension of offenders, investigation & producing them with
evidence before the Court of Law, the Legal system has the onerous responsibility to ensure carriage of justice as well as a major portion of deterrence in terms of fast-track trial/conviction and exemplary punishment that instils fear of consequences.
Keeping in view the above and my
understanding that the assigned scope of suggestions to be made by the
esteemed Verma committee is to suggest amendments to existing Laws
relating to crimes against women/ sexual offences, I, as a lay-person,
offer the following suggestions. Legal nuances & modalities can
always be worked out by the experts and experienced in the legal field.
1. The first cardinal principle on which Laws relating to RAPE must be based on should be : “ Even a prostitute/sex worker has a right not to be raped.”
2. Rape to be made a non-bailable offense.
3. Fast track courts at least
for crimes against women of serious nature like rape, acid attacks and
other serious sexual assaults ( to be clearly defined). The ideal
position would be to have separate fast track courts for all crimes
against women – from eve-teasing, stalking, molestation, other sorts of
sexual harassment to acid attacks, rape, and dowry deaths.
4. Fast track must be set up across the
entire legal structure from trial court at the bottom to appellate
judiciary at High Court and Supreme Court.
(Otherwise, even after fast track trial
and conviction at the lower court, the ultimate conviction may take
years to come through, prolonging the misery and victimisation of the
victim, ultimately resulting in possible miscarriage of justice. Delayed
trials and appeal disposals, coupled with chargesheeted rapists or
serious sex offenders out on bail is a sure shot recipe for enhanced
risk to the victim in particular and society, in general. )
5. In- camera trial of these cases.
Information Technology need be harnessed to speed up proceedings in the
fast track courts & enhance efficiency of the courts in actually
disposing off these cases.
6. The fast track courts to complete
trial within 3 months hearing on a day-to-day basis. The appellate
judiciary similarly need to have fast track disposal of the appeals
within another 3 months. All cases, thus, must be disposed off and final
verdicts passed for ultimate execution thereof within 6 months of
commencement of trial.
7. ban on much objectionable ‘2-finger’
medical test of the assaulted and repeated offensive, humiliating
questions regarding details of the incident and exact sequence of
violation.
8. DNA test reports and other forensic
test reports relating to sexual assault to be made sufficient evidence
of crime having been committed.
9. The onus of proving innocence in
sexual offenses should lie on the defendant ( accused) instead
of onus resting on the prosecution to prove the crime.
10. Attempt to rape/ gang-rape to be treated on par with rape.
(Although establishing evidence
relating to attempt to rape may be a little difficult, as compared to
establishing rape, it is equally culpable and must be equivalently
punished, if proven, for a greater deterrent value. Hopefully, with
advanced forensic skills and DNA tests, physical resistance by the
victim before the ultimate violation ( read, rape) happens is likely to
leave many other verifiable evidence like bruises by nails, bites, hair
and so many other stuff.)
11. Stringent and graded punishment need
be imposed, depending upon motivation, gravity and brutality of the
assault. The minimum in case of rape should be 7 years of imprisonment
to 14 years with fine or added term in lieu thereof. In grievous cases,
punishment must be enhanced to life imprisonment upto 30-50 yrs
subject to a maximum sentence of capital punishment in the rarest of rare cases. Gang rape must attract stricter punishment on the upper end of the scale of punishment.
(Nothing less than death penalty will
be deterrent enough for rapists. Rape is a bigger crime than murder, not
only from a woman’s perspective, but from a perspective of the entire
society and humanity at large. And gang rape touches the nadir!
The recent Delhi gang-rape case is a
glaring example of an open and shut case involving unimaginable degree
of savagery in a rape case that may qualify for capital punishment.)
12. Chemical castration should NOT be a prescribed punishment.
(Perverts like rapists getting out of
jail after going through such punishment are more likely to imbibe
greater mental sickness and adopt other deadly modus operandi like acid
attacks, murder or other brutalities on the victim and/or others in the
society. Society can not afford to have these pervert minds roaming
around freely even with impotency. )
13. Mercy petitions to the President
against capital punishment in a rarest of rare case of sexual assault,
once upheld by the highest judiciary, viz. the Supreme Court, must not
be allowed.
14. On conviction, full legal cost &
medical expenses incurred by the victim/State to be made good by the
convict, or extra punishment in lieu thereof should be imposed, if has
no means to pay. State to bear this in latter cases.
15. Victim and witnesses be provided
protection even if the accused is in police/judicial custody till the
final verdict and execution. Necessary to foil any bid to pressurize the
victim by anyone known to the accused, especially when accused is a
person/related to persons of known clout or known criminal background.
16. Laws relating to juvenile accused
need a relook to book accused aged 16-17 years of age on par with majors
in crimes involving brutality of high degree.
(A question mark still remains. Even if
the juvenile laws are amended, will the same be applicable to the 17 yr
old minor accused in the bestial Delhi bus gangrape case ? Because, as
on the date of committing the crime, the accused was a minor and came
under the purview of the existing juvenile laws. Should be examined, if
retrospective effect clause could be brought in by way of amendment.)
17.Mandatory in-jail counselling of sexual assault convicts aged upto 30 serving prison terms upto 14 years
(A peculiar aspect of many convicts in
cases of sexual offences involving sentences at the lower end is their
age and expected residual life after serving the sentence in prison. A
majority of them happen to be young & in their 20s/30s and even
after serving a long sentence in prison from 7 to 14 years, long years
of life in the society normally await them. This makes it imperative to
think about how to reform and reclaim these people, in eminently
deserving cases. Start with mandatory counselling of at least those
under age of 30 ( i.e very young, who are likely to have a quite long
residual life even after completing 7 to 14 years of sentence), put
their behaviour under observation for suitable further BS intervention.
As these crimes are usually committed in young age in some cases on the
spur of the moment or to settle a score after being rejected, some of
them still have a possibility of getting truly remorseful and reformed.
The aim of this measure is to try and reform the convict, so that when
he goes out of jail, he will not be a repeat offender and /or will be in
a position to return to the social mainstream. )
Other suggestions:
18. National database of rapists and
persons convicted of other sexual assaults to be compiled and updated on
an on-going basis and made public with their photographs by displaying
at police stations. The directory should also be made available on-line.
This will go a long way in alerting prospective employers/hirers and
others entering into any kind of dealings with them, apart from helping
law enforcement authorities in averting repeat offences or bringing them
to book.
19. Mandatory Identity Badge with
photograph and driving licence particulars for drivers of all types of
commercial/govt. vehicles plying for public transport – which should be
displayed/mounted inside the vehicle in front side in such a manner as
to be visible to the passenger as soon as he/she enters the vehicle.
20 . Install GPS in all public transports
21. FIRs must be lodged under CCTV coverage in police stations.
22. Segregate law & order enforcing team from investigating agency within police
23. Ensure good infrastructure and
technical skill for forensic tests and preservation of forensic evidence
till production in court
24. Ensure street lights in cities
25. Increase visibility of Police -
more PCR Vans, more constables/homeguards near malls, entertainment
spots, in public buses/ trains/metro at night after , say, 9 pm, more
beat police at night etc
26. Install CCTVs at various points of roads for a good enough surveillance of all public transports
27. PCR & PCR Vans to be equipped
with advanced technology-supported tools like mobile trackers etc. and
special numbers be allotted or IT be harnessed in some other way to
enable women in distress to send out sos calls to police by simple
touching/pressing of one or two keys. With mobile tracker, police can
reach the spot most expeditiously.
28. A special drive be made to gender-sensitize police.
29. Each Police station to have a woman police officer & each PCR van to have a well-trained woman police officer.
30. Consider feasibility of on-line
lodgement of FIR. Online lodgement of FIR to be noted immediately– to be
formalised after either visit by the police to the complainant on the
spot through mobile tracking/to address given or, after the complainant
comes to the police station – depending on the exact situation.
Modalities may be worked out by the experts.
31. Fill up all vacancies in the
judiciary and enhance strength of police and judges to reasonable
numbers vis-à-vis the vast population of India that they are supposed to
serve! Crying hoarse about fast-tracking without ensuring the numbers,
skills and other enabling factors will lead us nowhere.
The long term solutions, however, call for reforms in Police, Judiciary, Social mindset.
………………………………………..
