Death for rapists: Legal eagles not on same page with Sushma
22 April 2013 1:23 AM GMT
Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, anguished over the rape of five-year-old girl, demanded death penalty in cases of rape of children and those involving brutality and barbarity. She was not the only politician demanding capital punishment for crime against women. Legal eagles, however, do not support these demands, saying that there are sufficient laws and the need there is for effective implementation of the current laws.
They wondered that why after every incident of such nature, politicians start demanding change in the law but never talk about for strict implementation of the existing rape laws, scientific evidence and faster trial of the cases.
‘Nothing short of death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity will help,’ she demanded asking to to convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence to perpetrators of such brutal crimes.
Millennium Post talked to various legal luminaries on the issue that if death punishment will instill enough fear in the minds of perpetrators of such crimes. They said that there are over-reaction in those cases which are hyped by the media and everybody forgets those cases once it is out of media.
KTS Tulsi, Senior Counsel, said, 'There are sufficient laws against rape crimes and demanding death sentence for rape cases is over-reaction by politicians. This is being demanded because of the media hype in some cases. This is normal incidence of crime and there is no need to inhance punishment. There are provision for rarest of rare cases. What we need to do is to streamline the judicial system. We need to have faster trials and quick decisions in these cases. Once that starts happenning, crime rate will automatically fall. These kind of over-reaction is not going to solve issues. It may work in few cases but the whole scenario will remain same.’
Another criminal lawyer and secretary of Delhi High Court Bar Association, Mohit Mathur, said, ‘I do not think that capital punishment will change anything, there should be effective implementation. I do not understand that why after every media-hyped incident of these crime people start talking about changing the law. Our laws are sufficieent to deal with these cases and handing out capital punishment is not going to end these crimes.’
‘There are some gross cases of such nature and for those case rarest of rare case provision is already there which attracts death penalty. What we need to do is to improve our investigation and trial. Investigation should be done scientifically so that the accused has no chance at all to get scot-free. Then there should be effective and fast implementation of trial. Once it starts happening, it will send a message that law will come to you and punish fastest and these feelings will do its job to curb the crimes,’ he said.
They wondered that why after every incident of such nature, politicians start demanding change in the law but never talk about for strict implementation of the existing rape laws, scientific evidence and faster trial of the cases.
‘Nothing short of death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity will help,’ she demanded asking to to convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence to perpetrators of such brutal crimes.
Millennium Post talked to various legal luminaries on the issue that if death punishment will instill enough fear in the minds of perpetrators of such crimes. They said that there are over-reaction in those cases which are hyped by the media and everybody forgets those cases once it is out of media.
KTS Tulsi, Senior Counsel, said, 'There are sufficient laws against rape crimes and demanding death sentence for rape cases is over-reaction by politicians. This is being demanded because of the media hype in some cases. This is normal incidence of crime and there is no need to inhance punishment. There are provision for rarest of rare cases. What we need to do is to streamline the judicial system. We need to have faster trials and quick decisions in these cases. Once that starts happenning, crime rate will automatically fall. These kind of over-reaction is not going to solve issues. It may work in few cases but the whole scenario will remain same.’
Another criminal lawyer and secretary of Delhi High Court Bar Association, Mohit Mathur, said, ‘I do not think that capital punishment will change anything, there should be effective implementation. I do not understand that why after every media-hyped incident of these crime people start talking about changing the law. Our laws are sufficieent to deal with these cases and handing out capital punishment is not going to end these crimes.’
‘There are some gross cases of such nature and for those case rarest of rare case provision is already there which attracts death penalty. What we need to do is to improve our investigation and trial. Investigation should be done scientifically so that the accused has no chance at all to get scot-free. Then there should be effective and fast implementation of trial. Once it starts happening, it will send a message that law will come to you and punish fastest and these feelings will do its job to curb the crimes,’ he said.
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