The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Centre if any study or scientific assessment was done before coming out with the Ordinance to award death penalty for rape of girls below the age of 12 years.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar asked, “Did you carry out any study, any scientific assessment that death penalty is a deterrent to rape?”
Victims at stake
“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,” the Bench remarked.
The High Court also questioned if the opinion and suggestion of any victims were taken before coming out with the Ordinance.
The Bench said the government was “not even looking at the root cause” or educating or sensitising people. It said that in several cases the offenders are below the age of 18 years or the perpetrator is someone from the family or known to them.
The oral observation came during the hearing of a petition filed in public interest challenging the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2013, in which a penal provision — minimum of seven years of jail term — for a rape convict was included and the court’s discretion to award less than that was taken away.
‘Law being abused’
Academician Madhu Purnima Kishwar has in her plea claimed that amendments to the law related to sexual offences was being abused in practice.
On Sunday, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to an Ordinance permitting death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.
The Ordinance provides for death sentence, imprisonment for life or a minimum sentence of 20 years for the rape of a child below 12 years.
The sentence for the rape of a girl below 16 would be a minimum of 20 years but extendible to life imprisonment, while that for gang-rape of a girl below 16 would be imprisonment for life.
The Ordinance also provides that investigation of all cases of rape shall be completed within two months. The deadline for the completion of trial in all rape cases will be two months. A six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed.
