CHILD RAPISTS TO GET DEATH, QUICK TRIAL

Cabinet nod to ordinance on death penalty for raping girls below 12 Punishment for rape of women increased

Responding to mounting unrest and criticism over the government’s inability to curb sexual crimes against girls, the Centre on Saturday approved an ordinance to introduce death penalty for rapists of children below the age of 12 years, longer jail term for all convicted rapists and a four-month deadline to complete investigation and trial in all rape cases.

The executive order, cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of public outrage over the Kathua rape-andmurder case where the victim was a minor, stipulates increased minimum punishment in all rape cases from seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment, sources said.

The Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, which seeks to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, the IPC, the Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to bring in stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls below 16 and 12 years, will become law when the President gives his assent.

The ordinance provides for stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years with minimum jail term of 20 years which may go up to life term or death sentence. Experts said this would be subject to the SC’s ruling that a convict be sent to the gallows only in the “rarest of rare” case.

Responding to mounting unrest and criticism over the government’s inability to curb sexual crimes against girls, the Centre on Saturday approved an Ordinance to introduce death for rapists of children below the age of 12 years, longer jail term for all convicted rapists and a four-month deadline to complete investigation and trial in all rape cases.

In cases of rape of a girl under 16 years of age, the Ordinance has increased minimum punishment from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to life imprisonment, which means jail term till the convict’s “natural life”. The punishment for gangrape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for life, sources said.

An average of four women report rape every hour across the country. Of the 36,000 women who filed police complaints in 2016, 462 were girls below the age of 6, 1,596 between 6 and 12 years old and 6,091 were in the 12-16 age-group.

Experts say harsher punishments are unlikely to make a difference unless government fixes the criminal justice system and ensure culprits are caught and convicted.