Context
The guidelines of Justice J.S. Verma Committee was in news, after the clamour of voices seeking the death penalty for the accused of the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.
Background
- The Justice J.S. Verma Committee recommendations, which led to the modification of criminal laws in 2013, was set up after the gang rape of a paramedic student in Delhi in 2012.
- The committee talked about how seeking for the death penalty might be a regressive step in the field of sentencing and reformation.
Recommendations of the committee
- The Justice Verma Committee provided for increasing the minimum sentence for rape from 7 years to 10 years, with provisions for a sentence of 20 years or maybe life imprisonment.
- However, the Committee did not advise the death penalty for rape.
- The committee talked about that “there may be significant proof that the deterrent impact of the death penalty on serious crimes is actually a myth.
- According to the Working Group on Human Rights, the homicide rate has declined consistently in India over the past two decades no matter the slowdown in the execution of death sentences since 1980.”
Stance of Union Cabinet
- The Union Cabinet did not take the recommendation of the death penalty while it cleared an ordinance on sexual assault in 2013, and signed the criminal amendments into regulation.
- Key amendments had been introduced in to offer the death penalty for rape that brought about death of the victim (Section 376A of the Indian Penal Code) and all people placed guilty of rape more than once (Section 376E).
- In 2018, further adjustments introduced death as the maximum punishment for every participant in a gang rape when the sufferer is less than 12 years old (Section 376DB), and life-long imprisonment if the victim is much less than 16 (Section 376DA).
- Under the brand new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, punishment for rape is laid down in several Sections including 64, 65 and 70(2), which notes the punishment for gang rape of a woman under the age of 18 is the death penalty.
Stance of Verma Committee on marital rape
- The Verma Committee endorsed that the exception to marital rape be eliminated, stating that “a marital or different relationship among the perpetrator or victim isn’t always a valid defence against the crimes of rape or sexual violation.”
- Concurring with the judgment of the European Commission of Human Rights, the Committee advocated the realization that a rapist remains a rapist no matter his relationship with the sufferer.
- However the Union authorities did not cross by this advice and refused to criminalise marital rape.
Conclusion
- The Verma Committee pointed out that the ethos of empowerment of women not only restricts itself to political equality, but also extends, in equal terms, to social, educational, and economic equality.
- For real empowerment of women it is necessary that regulation, as well as public coverage, need to be capable of engaging substantially with women’s rights, possibilities, acquisition of talents, the ability to generate self-self belief and demand for equality in relationships, both with society and the country.
Source: The Hindu