Not by death alone

The Centre has done well to accept major recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee on the amendments to various criminal laws dealing with rape and other forms of sexual harassment to women, though it is not clear why it took recourse to an Ordinance when the Parliament session is due in less than three weeks. On Sunday, President Pranab Mukherjee promulgated the Ordinance which should be passed by Parliament within six months. The Union cabinet has rightly expanded the scope of sexual crimes by replacing ‘rape’ with the expression ‘sexual assault’ and included inappropriate touching, stalking and acid attacks among sexual offences and provided for stringent punishment.

But in a major departure from the Verma Committee report, the UPA government has proposed death penalty in the so-called rarest of rare cases which will be subject to interpretation. The committee’s recommendation for a life term extending to the whole life of the accused in extreme cases was based on sound argument that death penalty for any offence is considered too barbaric and completely uncivilised in modern times, and across the world, more than 150 countries have dropped such provision from their statutes. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that death penalty acts as deterrence to crimes. If the Centre wanted to send out a message that the accused in the Delhi rape case will get the most stringent punishment, pandering to jingoistic demands, it is not really so because any amendment cannot be applied retrospectively. Hence, the UPA government will do well to drop the proposal for death penalty and go by the sane recommendations of the Verma Committee report.

In other respects, the proposals for bringing eve-teasing, voyeurism, groping, stalking, including monitoring of email and acid attacks as punishable offences with enhanced jail terms, are exceptional and should go a long way in helping women to feel safer on roads, provided in such cases the police act promptly and swift punishment is handed out to the accused. Some of the women’s and human rights organisations have taken exception to the government not accepting the suggestion of the Verma Committee to recognise marital rape as a crime and to try sexual crimes by members of the armed forces under ordinary criminal laws. These are larger issues which need much deeper study. The new set of amendments should come into force as quickly as possible, but as everyone knows, their effectiveness will depend on how efficiently they are acted upon by the police, the prosecution and the judiciary.