Government Approves Ordinance Of Death Penalty To Rapists Of Children Under 12

death penalty

This year has been an extremely dark one for Indians. We have witnessed rape after rape of our daughters. Increasingly violent and despicable ones. Even as the nation attempted to recover from the news of the recent rape incidents which sent waves across the country, it wasn’t about to end there. Immediately after, we heard about not one, but two cases of minors being raped and murdered at weddings in UP.

As always, everyone scrambled to protest the crimes and lamented about the lack of proper jurisdiction. Thankfully, it looks like there might be some solutions to this soon.

The government is set to promulgate a criminal law amendment ordinance to amend existing laws to award the death sentence to those found guilty of raping a child below 12 years of age.

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The Cabinet approved an ordinance to award death penalty to those who are convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age. – In case of rape of a girl aged under 16 years, the minimum punishment to be awarded has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, which is extendable to life imprisonment. – The minimum punishment to those raping a girl aged under 12 will be 20 years imprisonment ________________ In the wake of recent rape incidents involving minors, there has been a strong call for maximum punishment for the guilty. Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and BJP MP Hema Malini have, in particular, called for the guilty to be ' hanged to death.' . . . . . #kathua #unnao #rape #rapecase #childabuse #savethechildren #protect #girlchild #savethegirls #girlpower #posco #JusticeForOurChild #zeenews

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The ordinance seeks to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to introduce a new provision to sentence convicts of such crimes, the punishment of death.

According to News18, the new ordinance entails the following:

  • Minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from the imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.
  • The minimum punishment for the rape of a child under 16 has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which shall mean imprisonment till that person’s natural life.
  • The punishment for the gang-rape of a girl under 16 years of age will invariably be imprisonment for rest of life of the convict.
  • Rigorous punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years includes minimum 20 years imprisonment or imprisonment for rest of life or with death.
  • Time limit for investigation of all cases of rape has been prescribed to be mandatorily completed within 2 months.
  • Time limit for completion of the trial of all rape cases has also been prescribed to be necessarily completed in 2 months.
  • Disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed with a 6 months time limit.
  • There will be no provision for anticipatory bail for anyone accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years.
  • Special forensic kits for rape cases to all Police Stations and hospitals and a dedicated manpower for the investigation in a time bound manner will be provided.
  • This data will be regularly shared with States/UTs for tracking, monitoring and investigation, including verification of antecedents by police.
  • The court has to give notice of 15 days to Public Prosecutor and the representative of the victim before deciding bail applications in case of rape of a girl under 16 years of age.

 

This move comes on the same day as the news of the rape and murder of a four-month-old child in Indore. The ordinance will now have to be replaced with an amendment bill in Parliament within the next six months.

Maneka Gandhi, the Union minister for Women and Child Development, was the first cabinet minister to propose the changes last week.

The proposal was then made by the Home Ministry on Saturday. The ordinance was signed within hours of PM Modi’s return from his recent foreign tour. Yesterday, in a letter submitted to the Supreme Court, the government had said that it had started the process to amend the POCSO Act.

This is a welcome move on the part of the Indian government. We hope that all the victims of this heinous crime are not deprived of justice any longer. Also that, this move puts a stop to the horrifyingly increasing number of rapes reported each day.

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