Author: Pulkit Gopalkrishan Popli, (2nd Year student of IIT Kharagpur Law School)
“Issue writ, direction or order to the Union of India, the respondent No. 1 to consider to impose castration as an additional punishment for child sex abusers and child rapists;
“Issue writ, direction or order to the Union of India, the respondent No. 1 to consider to impose castration as an additional punishment for child sex abusers and child rapists;
Issue writ, direction, or order to
the respondent No.2 (Ministry of Women and Child Development) to frame
guidelines in regard to the protection of the children from sexual abuse and
impose castration as an additional punishment for the rape of the minor girls
to protect their constitutional rights.”
This
was the prayer of the Supreme Court Women
Lawyers Association (SCWLA) v. Union of India & Anr.[i]
that was heard by the Honorable Supreme Court by the bench of Justice Dipak
Misra and Justice NV Ramana on January 11, 2016. The bench clearly mentioned
that the law should not be made sentimentally or emotionally and distanced
itself from issuing any such direction or punishment as there is a law already
available for the same. But the court further said that the parliament may go on
to amend the penal provisions to award the harsher punishment for raping girl
child and may also define the term 'child' in respect of rape as the offence.
Castration
as defined by the Merriam Webster’s dictionary means the removal or to deprive
of the testes. The Castration may be done surgically or chemically by
anti-androgens. The demand of castration as punishment for the sexual offences
is not new and has been voiced from time to time. The Madras High Court in October 2015 in the
case of Jonathan Robinson v. The Inspector of Police[ii]
perhaps got sentimental or emotional about the same offence and went on to
suggest the castration as the punishment. Justice Kirubakaran in this judgment
in the very first paragraph has very strongly and heavily recommended the
punishment saying that the brutality of the offence would justify the
punishment. Further, taking a dig at the Human Rights Activists, Honorable
Justice has said that they are aware that there would be a lot of hue and cry
by the people who claim themselves as the Human Rights Activists but they
should also think about the human rights of the victims and the agony and
suffering that they have suffered.
Justice
Verma Committee Report of 2013 in paragraph 40 on the Castration as penalty
mentions
“We note that it would be unconstitutional
and inconsistent with basic human rights treaties for the State to expose any
citizen without their consent to potentially dangerous medical side effects.
For this reason we do not recommend mandatory chemical castration of any type
as a punishment for sex offenders. For the same reason the government of India
also does not prescribe chemical castration as a family planning method.”
If
the reliance is put on the report of Asian Centre of Human Rights, India's Hell Holes: Child Sexual Assault
in Juvenile Justice Homes, more than 48,838 child rape cases were recorded
from 2001 to 2011 and that India saw an increase of 336% of child rape cases
from 2001 (2,113 cases) to 2011 (7,112 cases). The report of National Crime
Records Bureau 2013, in Chapter 6 very proudly mentions that a total of 12,363
cases of child rape were reported in the country during 2013 as compared to
8,541 in 2012 accounting for an increase of 44.7% during the year 2013. Maximum
of child rape cases were reported in Madhya Pradesh (2,112 cases) followed by
Maharashtra (1,546 cases) and Uttar Pradesh (1,381 cases). These three States
together accounted for 40.8% of the total child rape cases reported in the
country. On an average, 3 children out of one lakh children population are
victims of rape. For population of every one lakh children , maximum of such
incidents were reported in Mizoram and A & N Island (16 children each)
followed by Delhi (14 children), Sikkim and Goa (12 children each).
Though
there has been a strong rise in the support for the abolition of death penalty
and harsh punishments such as castration, Guam has recently passed “Chemical
Castration for Sex Offenders Act” in September 2015 which requires the chemical
castration of the offenders going out on parole to minimize the risk. This Act
was passed after the alarming rise in the number of Children related offences
in Guam. It has also received a mixed response.
Now,
with the huge number of the offences throughout the country, it is hard to
predict whether the sentiments of Justice Kirubakaran are in the right
direction or the logics of Justice Misra and Justice Ramana. But one thing is
clear that India is one of the 5 countries with the highest number of Child abuses
and this problem needs immediate and effective solution, either by parliament
or by judiciary.
Disclaimer: This blog or any post thereof is not to be considered to be in any way associated with the official stand of IIT kharagpur or RGSOIPL on the issues being discussed in the said post. The opinions on the blog are the authors own and should not be considered as legal advice.
[i] Writ
Petition (C) No. 4 of 2016 [PIL]
[ii] Crl.
O.P.(MD) No. 11735 of 2014
