Diksha Tarnekar
National Law Institute University, Bhopal
“One of the more difficult tasks for me as president was to decide on the issue of Capital Punishment awarded by courts…to my surprise…almost all cases which were pending had a social and economic bias”
– Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Women are always subjected to violence and crime at every stage of their life in this male-dominated society. Every time she wants to raise her voice, it is pressed by others due to stereotypical norms and if she doesn’t pay heed to it, she becomes a victim of crime mainly related to sexual offences.
In recent times, Rape rate has significantly accelerated in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a rape takes place every 16 minutes in the country. There has been a lot of petitions filed to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) with the laws related to Sexual Offences mainly, Rape and inserting Capital Punishment as a punishment for heinous crimes. But, as there are its own merits, in a different scenario Death Penalty is not justified.
What is Capital Punishment?
Capital punishment, also called death penalty, execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law for a criminal offense. Capital punishment should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out without due process of law.
In India, it is mainly sentenced in the ‘rarest of rare case’. This principle was laid down in the landmark judgement of Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab[i]. Supreme Court formulated certain broad illustrative guidelines and said it should be given only when the option of awarding the sentence of life imprisonment is “unquestionably foreclosed”.
The Offence of Rape:
- Nirbhaya Case
The brutal rape of 23-year-old women famously known as ‘Nirbhaya’ which happened on the fateful night of 16 December 2012 in a moving private bus in Delhi by 7 men including a juvenile shook the nation. The citizens were on the roads demanding death penalty. All the accused were charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused died in the police custody possibly due to suicide and another accused died by hanging himself but the defence lawyer and family members alleged that he was murdered. Remaining accused went onto the trial and the juvenile was found guilty and was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a reform facility as per Juvenile Justice Act.
In 2013, the four remaining accused were found guilty of murder and rape and was sentenced to death by hanging. In 2019, Supreme Court of India sentenced the convicts to be hanged on 20 March 2020.
- Hyderabad Encounter
In 2019, a 27-year-old veterinarian was brutally raped and murdered, eerily reminiscent of the 2012 Delhi gang rape once again jolted the conscience of the entire nation. Within the week of the incident, all the four were killed in an encounter. The Police administration was criticized with the argument of Fake Encounter and abuse of power but the other part of citizens appreciated and applauded the justice delivered.
- Hathras Rape Case
This is the case where we can see the flawed Indian Democracy. A 19-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by four upper-caste men of the village Hathras, U.P. Her spine was broken and tongue was cut out. Being critical on the hospital bed, she managed to name the culpritsand they were arrested. This case caught the light of the entire country because after she was declared dead, the police cremated her hurriedly in the dead of the night not giving the family of the victim to perform the last rites of the funeral. Also, the case attracted the topic of Casteism too. CM Yogi Adityanath gave the case to the CBI for the investigation. This case is the wake call for the amendment in the present laws with stricter punishment, not less than death penalty.
Debate for the Implementation of Capital Punishment:
The idea that the death penalty for crimes of sexual violence is an effective deterrent is a flawed premise which needs to be engaged with at a fundamental level. What it does is assuage the righteous moral sentiments of the public solution and populist approach – instead of identifying the cause and working towards a more effective solution. The system condones the death penalty without realising that the elimination of a criminal does not warrant the elimination of the crime.[ii]
There is a lot of arguments revolving around the implementation of Capital Punishment keeping in mind the reformation of the criminal and for the better working of society.
Arguments in favor of Capital Punishment:
- Capital Punishment can act as deterrent for criminal.
- There will be low crime rate in society if stricter punishment is imposed like death penalty for heinous crimes.
- It is argued that death penalty provides closure to the victim’s family.
- The would-be criminals will leave the path of committing a crime if the death penalty is imposed.
Arguments against Capital Punishment:
- There will be no scope of reformation for the criminal.
- Statistics suggest that there will be no decrease in the rate of crime.
- Capital Punishment will interpret society as revengeful and merciless.
- Imposing criminal punishment will not do justification to the criminals who were trapped in the loophole of crime because of the factors like poverty.
Conclusion:
Deterrence is the best punishment after a crime is committed. Lengthy legal procedures will be ineffective for deterrent punishment. There has been a lot of ethical dilemma revolving around the topic of capital punishment for heinous crimes. Life Imprisonment can be an alternative for the death penalty as it gives the chance of reformation to the criminal and even if doesn’t work, life imprisonment can act as the severe punishment and as deterrent too.
However, some criminals who commit a heinous crime and are not capable of being reformed deserves to be served from the death penalty.
REFERENCES:
[i] AIR 1980 SC 898, 1980
[ii]https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/miscellany/death-penalty-for-gender-based-violence-a-band-aid-solution-for-a-broken-system.html accessed on 04 October 2020
