Supreme Court verdict for Rape cases - Punishment cannot be reduced or softened
Supreme Court has made it clear that no punishment can be altered, modified, softened, or changed in Rape related cases. The Supreme Court’s verdict, “That no middle path or kind behavior can be shown towards these rape criminals” has condemned the lower court’s decision.
In recent years, Supreme Court had given such verdicts, which made the rape cases punishment without much after effect in many courts of India. Based on settlement between the victim and Rapist the courts have declared that the punishment sentence can be reduced or modified. The verdict of Judge Deepak Mishra and Prafful C Pant in July 2015 is a milestone in this path.
In Madhya Pradesh Madanlal’s case, the judge condemned the MP Supreme Court’s case. MP’ supreme court had changed the section 376 (rape) punishment to section 354 (eve teasing) in the above case. The police appealed in Supreme Court against this decision. In short, the rapist was under trail for rape with a seven-year-old girl. The act was committed in 2008 and he was given hardcore jail punishment. The MP supreme court changed the accusations under section 354 and released the criminal in lieu of completed the punishment earlier.
The judge summarized the explanation and noted that the Supreme Court authorities just wrote in the verdict that ‘the guilty party produced so many witnesses and documents’ is not enough to pass the verdict in such cases and sent the case back to the Supreme Court.
He added further that the MP supreme court’s judge had been swayed by the settlement between the victim’s parents and the guilty. In Haryana Shimbhu case, the Supreme Court had given this verdict in 2014 as follows –
Just because the settlement has been done between the two parties does not mean that the punishment can be reduced. Rape is such a heinous crime in which no settlement can be done. It is against the society and is not a subject to be left between parties for settlement. In lieu of proper justice and saving the victim from unnecessary pressure, it is important that no importance should be given to settlement of case.
He added that this is against the women’s body, which is considered a holy place. This is such a worst crime, which takes away the life and happiness of an individual. It disregards the honor of the women and makes it difficult for her to stay normally in society. In some cases the marriage between victim and guilty is materialized but this no way out and creates extreme pressure on the victim. This crime can have no scope of any form of settlement or reducing or modifying of the punishment. In other words, any kind of settlement is prohibited in Rape cases.
By Poonam Kaushik, High Court Advocate, Delhi
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