Shiban Khaibri
Justice J.S.Verma and Justice Usha Mehra Commissions were constituted by the Government to look into the areas where changes and amendments into the existing laws could be brought about as also suggest ways and means to ensure protection of women and fix responsibility and identify lapses by the Police and other agencies following the unprecedented public outrage over Nirbhaya’s most brutal assault on her modesty and her life in December last year. The fact that the gruesome incident did stir the conscience of every one in the society including those in the Government cannot be overlooked. It also cannot be disputed that there exist laws in the country’s criminal jurisprudence, reasonably sufficient to deal with such cases but timely deliverance of justice and increasing conviction rates were the two facets of the undercurrent of the public anguish.
It may be recalled that a gang rape victim in Ahmedabad recently attempted to commit suicide at home because she was not getting justice but adjournment dates from the court. “Why do you want to die here? Nobody will know your pain. You should (instead) die where you are not getting justice but one more adjournment date. Tell the world that nobody is listening to your silent cries”, advised the bewildered father to her traumatized daughter. The girl did exactly the same and consumed poison in the court room itself after she got another adjournment in the last hearing. Though her life was saved by the Doctors but she laments for the total disarray her family members had been pushed into on account of “what happened to me”. “Justice and death both have eluded me”, bemoans the victim. This speaks of where the problem mostly lies. At the same time, the people across the country wanted harsher punishment, even death sentence, to the convicted rapists. They went a step further to suggest even castration of the guilty. In other words, the higher and harsher quantum of punishment with intent to prove it as a deterrent was mooted by almost all shades of the society. Has Justice Verma commission, in particular, therefore, adequately touched various faces of the problem is a matter of debate but it has definitely addressed almost all the concerned areas as would experts on the country’s criminal jurisprudence agree too when analyzed on comparative basis. However, the question arises as to whether Government is likely to be in full agreement with what Justice Verma has suggested? Theoretically, the recommendations are not binding in totality on the Government but the indications that the politicians and the security personnel could not be brought under the ambit of the recommendations must dishearten many than gladden a few. Amendments to AFSPA, even suggestions of reviewing the rationale of its continuance in disturbed areas, can admittedly put the aspects of the internal security to jeopardy especially on account of the continued threats of terrorism and Maoist – Naxalite violence and the view point of the Government can be accommodated in this respect. It seems, however, ludicrous to keep the politicians immune from the recommendations of the commission. Why a rape accused politician should not be barred from contesting elections the moment a competent court has taken cognizance of the crime committed by him and denied occupying positions in cabinets and other government bodies, is the bane of the problem. The Union Law Minister has opined “not only in the capacity of the Union Minister but as a citizen and a lawyer”, that unless a politician is proven guilty by a court of law, why should he be held ineligible to contest elections? The Law Minister has put at rest the views of extremities as “transient impulses cannot be allowed to push the nation to adopt extreme positions within our political discourse in the process of law making.” Agreed, but let us take a few shocking instances where the circumstances crying for very harsh punishments cannot be termed as transient impulses. A minor girl of 11 years in Sikkar Rajasthan was so much brutalized in gang rape that she had to undergo as many as 14 surgeries to repair and rebuild her damaged organs. It was only when the media highlighted the plight of this girl as also utter callousness of Police in the matter that authorities swung into action. Again a person after committing brutal rape on a 15 year old girl in Sri Ganganagar Rajasthan hacked her to death with an axe to destroy evidence. Take the cases of acid throwing on those girls who had refused to succumb to the nefarious designs of criminal mindsets. The case of the poor girl of Dhanbad or even that of the resident of a village in R.S. Pura, Jammu where the acid burns inflicted by the criminals have been so severe so as to adversely affect the life of the victims and make their families financially and emotionally crippled. The criminal justice system has to take harsher measures to inflict the pain of punishment on the likes of Delhi gang rape, the Sikkar incident and the acid throwing heart rending cases.
So the view of the Union Law Minister that “knee jerk reactions and transient impulses cannot affect laws” need to be reviewed in cases discussed in these lines. The extremities of crimes especially of this nature need not to be seen through “rejecting extreme views”. It is heartening to note that the Union Law Minister has assured in context of the reports of these two commissions that the Government was “committed to initiating major legal, judicial and electoral reforms to ensure health of the nation’s constitutional democracy.” Let the countrymen see whether the promises are kept especially in the area of electoral system.
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