Justice is reform, not retribution

The conviction and sentencing of Sanjay Roy, a former civic volunteer, by a Kolkata court in the case of rape and murder of a junior doctor in the city’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital bring closure to a case that had drawn national attention and evoked revulsion and large-scale protests from doctors and civil society.

The CBI took over the case from the Kolkata police which had first investigated it. The speedy investigation and trial which led to the conviction in just over five months should be commended.

Roy has been awarded a life sentence until death, which may be considered the harshest sentence after the death penalty. The prosecution sought the death penalty for him but the judge found it is not the rarest of rare cases to award the maximum punishment.

There was a strong demand for the death penalty from the victim’s parents, the doctors’ community, and others, and there is disappointment that it was not awarded.

Every case in which the death penalty is awarded or sought is an occasion to restate the basic principles of the system of justice and how the maximum penalty, which amounts to the killing of a person by the state, defeats the ends of justice.

On Monday, a young woman of 24 years was sentenced to death by a court in Kerala for murdering her boyfriend by giving him an Ayurvedic potion laced with poison. The sentence has been lauded as one that brought justice to the victim and his family. But there is greater injustice in taking the life of a person without providing an opportunity to reform.

All systems of genuine justice aim for the reform of a person who has committed the crime, not retribution. It is a primitive sense of justice, a vindictive view of the world, that prescribes taking an eye for an eye and a life for a life. The Kolkata judge mentioned this in his judgement. Gandhiji had said that extending this logic would make the whole world blind.

Even a life term till death in prison would deny a person the chance to reform and become a part of society. One basic dictum in the criminal justice system is that it is not the severity, but the certainty, of punishment that acts as a deterrent against crime.

There are serious issues like the safety of women, security at the workplace, and the conduct of police and other authorities involved in the Kolkata rape and murder case. The death of the guilty person would not address any of these issues. Killing is no solution to any issue – in war, life, or society.