Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018

Why in news?

Rajasthan recently passed a Bill providing for death penalty to those convicted of raping girls of 12 years and below.

What is the Bill about?

• The Bill seeks to amend the Indian Penal Code with the insertion of new provision.
• The Bill had inserted two new sections, 376-AA and 376-DD, in the IPC.
• Section 376-AA provides for capital punishment or rigorous imprisonment ranging between 14 years and lifelong incarceration.
• Section 376-DD makes a similar provision for gang-rape of a girl child.
• It lays down death penalty or imprisonment from 20 years to lifelong incarceration for those convicted of the offence.
• Each of the persons constituting the gang will be deemed to be guilty of the offence.
• The Bill will become a law after it gets the Presidential assent.
• Rajasthan became the second State, after Madhya Pradesh, to pass such a Bill. 

What is the need?

• Offences relating to child rape and child gang-rape are taking place every now and then.
• National Crime Records Bureau’s 2016 report highlights a steady increase of cases of crimes against children in Rajasthan.
• The State recorded around 4,000 such cases in 2016, which was 3.8% of the crimes against children registered across the country.
• The legislation is said to aim at protecting the girl child by laying down a deterrent punishment, including death sentence, to the offenders.

What are the drawbacks?

• How far will institutionalising capital punishment really act as a deterrent remains a long-pending debate.
• The demand for the death penalty in a rape case puts forth the idea of ultimately equating rape with death.
• Progressive groups and individuals condemn sexual violence but opposes death penalty.
• They argue that patriarchal notions of ‘honour’ lead society to believe that rape is the worst thing that can happen to a woman.
• Rape is a tool of patriarchy, an act of violence, and has nothing to do with morality, character or behaviour of the woman.
• There is a thus a need to strongly challenge this stereotype of the ‘destroyed’ woman who loses her honour and who has no place in society after she’s been sexually assaulted.
• In this line, the Justice Verma Committee ruled against recommending death penalty even in the rarest of the rare rape cases.
• Justice Verma Committee was formed in 2013 to look into crimes against women after the infamous Delhi gang rape case.
• The committee also rejected the suggestion of chemical castration, saying it would violate human rights.
• As, mutilation of the body is not permitted under the constitution.
• It would be unconstitutional and inconsistent with basic human rights treaties to expose any citizen without the consent to potentially dangerous medical side effects.

What is the way forward?

• The mandatory minimum sentences for sexual offences have already been increased by the POCSO Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013.
• So the need of the day is successful prosecutions, an increase in number of convictions and social awareness.
• It is the lack of fear of being caught which drives most criminals and rapists.
• Thus, a robust criminal justice system would act as a more effective deterrent against rape or sexual violence.

Source: The Hindu, The Wire