Court condemns society’s moral collapse
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 24: In a landmark and emotionally charged judgment, the Principal Sessions Judge of Anantnag, Tahir Khurshid Raina today awarded life imprisonment to a father convicted of raping and impregnating his 15-year-old daughter. The court has also condemned the society’s moral and social degradation.
The case registered under FIR No. 03/2022 at the Women’s Police Station, Anantnag, involved charges against the accused under Sections 376(3) and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the POCSO Act. The court found the accused guilty after a grim trial during which the victim, in her testimony, asked her father through tears, “does any father do this to his daughter?” This question, the court remarked, “was not only directed at the convict but at society as a whole”.
The judgment was a searing observation on the erosion of familial and moral values. He questioned whether daughters in contemporary society are “safe and secure in their own homes and hearths,” highlighting that even spaces meant to be sanctuaries have turned into sites of trauma. The court lamented, “the instant conviction has unfortunately cast a death shadow on the pious and beautiful relation between a father and a daughter”.
The Judge referred to another pending case before the same court where a grandfather is accused of continuously raping his granddaughter for two years. He described such cases as evidence of “extreme depravity, moral collapse, and mental sickness” within the society.
The judgment posed deep moral and societal questions: Whether our daughters are safe enough to survive, sustain and enjoy life to their fullest?, Whether merely awarding a sentence will rejuvenate the probity level of society?, Can daughters ever feel safe and secure even within their homes?
The Judge called for social introspection, stating that justice must not only punish the offender but awaken the collective conscience of the community.
The court relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling in Bhanei Prasad Raju Vs State of Himachal Pradesh. The Supreme Court had observed that when a father, who should be a shield, becomes the source of the worst violation, “the betrayal is not only personal but institutional”. The court adopted this reasoning, emphasizing that such incestuous crimes “must invite the severest condemnation in both language and sentence”.
Under Section 376(3) IPC, the Principal Sessions Judge Anantnag awarded life imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life and a fine of Rs 1,00,000. Under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, the court awarded life imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life and a fine of Rs 1,00,000. Under Section 506 IPC, seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.
“All sentences are to run concurrently. The fines, if paid, will be handed to the victim for her rehabilitation”, the court directed.
Recognizing the lifelong emotional and psychological trauma inflicted, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Anantnag, to invoke the Victim Compensation Scheme under Section 357A of the CrPC. The judge ordered that compensation should not be less than Rs 10,00,000, to be placed in a fixed deposit in the victim’s name and managed under the supervision of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). The court mandated that the funds may only be used for the girl’s education, medical, or psychological needs.
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