Noting that crimes against children showed the abysmal depths to which society is falling, the Supreme Court on Monday said rape of infants and children below 10 years of age is nothing but brutal perversion and asked the Parliament to enact a separate law providing harsh punishment.
This is the first time that the apex court has distinguished infants and children below the age of 10 from the general description of 'minors' given by law to anyone below the age of 18.
A Bench, led by Justice Dipak Misra, said the Parliament had to separately define the word 'child' in terms of rape.
The suggestions from the apex court to the Parliament is part of an order dictated at the end of a hearing of a writ petition seeking castration as an additional punishment for child rapists.
"The pain and distress caused to a child who knows nothing about sex and rape is nothing but brutal perversion. When a society moves this way, it has to be stopped," Justice Misra observed.
“Victims are as young as three year to four years of age... there was one instance of a 28-day-old infant...” Justice Misra remarked, later adding that such crimes were “atrocious, unconscionable and cruel”.
The court pointed out how Section 376 (2) (f) of the Indian Penal Code only talks of rape of a "woman below 12 years of age". It said the Code has no specific provision dealing with punishment for raping girl children below 10 years of age and infants after classifying them as a separate category.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said child rape could never be tolerated. He agreed to highlight the court's suggestions to the government for putting it up before the lawmakers for an appropriate legislation.
However, the court declined SCWLA's plea to include castration as an additional punishment, saying the judiciary cannnot issue a mandamus to create a punishment for an offence. “That is the job of the legislature,” Justice Misra told senior advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani for SCWLA.
“You have protected juvenile offenders in the past, it is time to protect juvenile victims,” Ms. Pavani argued for a harsher punishment against child rapists.
The apex court's suggestion to the Parliament comes even as new anti-rape laws has made rape punishable with death penalty.
The petition had contended that India would not be viewed as barbaric by introducing castration as a punishment. It argued that a special Act like Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012 has not been able to prevent crimes against the children from rising.