Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Law Makers and their LawChildren and women in this country are facing threatening issues rather than other human species. I bet, if the crime against women and children will keep pace at the same speed then soon we will tag them as extinct species in India. In 2013, the Criminal Law Amendment Act was introduced which generated some hopes for shining the armor of these species who are endangered.
We were hoping, that Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 will act as a knight against those rapists, that are most deplorable brand of criminals in our country. This act was introduced as the ultimate weapon to fight with rapists. Though crime against women can be found as diverse set of offences yet rape is the severe form among all of these.
Many of us think that stringent punishment is the best way to check such incidents. But what about the increased frequency and greater impunity of these crimes, even after the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013?
Where are we heading? To understand it, first we have to examine the law. For the first time, in the Indian history of Law, non penetrative sexual assault such as voyeurism and stalking were brought into crime. Indian Penal Code carried the punishments for such offenses depending on the background and nature of the crime and criminal. These punishments range from one year to seven years.
Along with this, Section 375 was also expanded and now even the digital penetration is considered as criminal offense along with vaginal, oral and anal rape.
Section 376 was also expanded to introduce the death penalty for rape incidents with gruesome crime and repeated offenders. In Section 114, sex without consent is also identified as rape offense. It’s not like that rape issues are related to women only. Chilldren are facing these issues to larger extent.
POSCO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012) has also marginalized some other type of offences especially for children. The punishment under this act ranges from few years to lifetime. This act has made it mandatory to report the case of child sexual abuse and presumption of guilt against the accused criminal.
The Rape Mechanism and Judiciary
If police personnel are involved in covering up the crimes against women or children, such as rape, the IPC Section 166A has prescribed the imprisonment of minimum 6 months and maximum 2 years. Some provisions have also been added in the POSCO Act.
So, we can say that there are enough laws in our judiciary to check the crimes against women. Then what is India doing wrong? Keep visiting this page as soon we will be coming up with the post mortem report of our Indian judiciary to explain the ground reality in next part of this article.
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