What Justice Verma panel say on death penalty for rape?

Syllabus: GS2/ Polity and Governance

Context

• The recommendations of Justice J.S. Verma Committee was in news, after the clamour of voices seeking the death penalty for the accused of the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.

Background

• The Justice J.S. Verma Committee recommendations, which led to the amendment of criminal laws in 2013, was set up after the gang rape of a paramedic student in Delhi in 2012.
• The committee pointed out that seeking the death penalty would be a regressive step in the field of sentencing and reformation.

Recommendations of the committee 

• The Justice Verma Committee provided for increasing the minimum sentence for rape from 7 years to 10 years, with provisions for a sentence of 20 years or even life imprisonment.
  • However, the Committee did not recommend the death penalty for rape
• The committee pointed out that “there is considerable evidence that the deterrent effect of the death penalty on serious crimes is actually a myth. 
• According to the Working Group on Human Rights, the murder rate has declined consistently in India over the last 20 years despite the slowdown in the execution of death sentences since 1980.”

Stance of Union Cabinet

• The Union Cabinet did not take the recommendation on the death penalty when it cleared an ordinance on sexual assault in 2013, and signed the criminal amendments into law.
• Key amendments were brought in to provide the death penalty for rape that led to death of the victim or reduced her to a persistent vegetative state (Section 376A of the Indian Penal Code) and anyone found guilty of rape more than once (Section 376E). 
• In 2018, further changes introduced death as the maximum punishment for every participant in a gang rape when the victim is less than 12 years old (Section 376DB), and life-long imprisonment if the victim is less than 16 (Section 376DA). 
• Under the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, punishment for rape is laid down in several Sections including 64, 65 and 70(2), which notes the punishment for gang rape of a woman under the age of 18 is the death penalty.

Stance of Verma Committee on marital rape

• The Verma Committee recommended that the exception to marital rape be removed, pointing out that “a marital or other relationship between the perpetrator or victim is not a valid defence against the crimes of rape or sexual violation.” 
• Concurring with the judgment of the European Commission of Human Rights, the Committee endorsed the conclusion that a rapist remains a rapist regardless of his relationship with the victim. 
• However the Union government did not go by this recommendation and refused to criminalise marital rape. 

Concluding remarks

• The Verma Committee pointed out that the ethos of empowerment of women does not limit itself to political equality, but also extends, in equal terms, to social, educational, and economic equality. 
• For true empowerment of women it is necessary that law, as well as public policy, must be capable of engaging substantially with women’s rights, opportunities, acquisition of skills, the ability to generate self-confidence and insist on total equality in relationships, both with society and the state.

Source: TH