The Hindu : `No leniency should be shown in rape cases'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 01, 2003

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`No leniency should be shown in rape cases'

By J. Venkatesan

New Delhi Nov. 30. The Supreme Court has asked all the trial and High Courts not to show any leniency in awarding punishments to those convicted of rape offences.

A Bench, comprising Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat, observed that "a rapist not only causes physical injuries but more indelibly leaves a scar on the most cherished possession of a woman that is her dignity, chastity, honour and reputation."

Expressing anguish over the increasing incidents of rape, the Bench enhanced the sentence from 46 days imposed by the Karnataka High Court to five years on a person guilty of raping a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy.

The Bench said the depravation of such animals in human form reached the rock bottom of morality when they sexually assaulted children, minors and like the case on hand, a woman in the advanced stage of pregnancy.

The Bench said that undue sympathy leading to an inadequate sentence on an offender would do more harm to the justice system and undermine public confidence in the efficacy of law, and society could not long endure such serious threats. The Judges said, "protection of society and stamping out of criminal proclivity must be the object of law which must be achieved by imposing an appropriate sentence."

Justice Pasayat, writing the judgment for the Bench, allowing an appeal by the Karnataka Government, said the law should adopt the corrective machinery or the deterrence ideology based on factual matrix.The Bench noted "It is, therefore, the duty of every court to award a proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was committed. It is expected that Courts would operate the sentencing system so as to impose such sentence which reflects the conscience of the society and the sentencing process has to be stern where it should be."The Bench was of the view that the social impact of the crime, for example, where it related to offences against women, dacoity, kidnapping, misappropriation of public money which had great impact and serious repercussions on social order and public interest, could not be lost sight of and per se required exemplary treatment.

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