A few hours ago, the Patiala House Court has refused to issue death warrant to the convicts of the gruesome Nirbhaya Gangrape case which shook the nation on 16th December 2012. Seven years since that horrific crime, the case lingers. One of the six convicts, then a juvenile, now an adult, is out after spending three years in a reformatory.
Another convict committed suicide in jail. The rest four convicts were sentenced to death by the supreme court on May 5, 2017. However, they are yet to be hanged. The law is being used, can not say’ misused’ to delay the hanging. Does this call for much-needed reform in the law?
The legal remedies of all the convicts are yet to be exhausted, thereby postponing their hanging. A convict has all the right to safeguard his/her life, as guaranteed by Article 21. But do we need some reasonable changes, or a time frame atleast for the delivery of
justice, in ‘rarest of rare case’ like these?
Well, the distinction between a ‘rarest of rare case’ and another sexual abuse case may seem to fall prey to emotions, because any sexual abuse, is painful and an attack on
the very being of the individual. Let the law decide the parameters.
On January 22, 2020, the Union government moved the Supreme Court for fixing a seven-day deadline for the execution of death row convicts. It wants the apex court to introduce a seven-day deadline for death row convicts to file a petition. It was in 2017, that the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals filed by the convicts against the Delhi High Court confirming their death penalty. The Government then did not approach a court for black warrant ordering Tihar jail to execute the
convicts.
Neither can the Government rush legal processes, nor can it shy away from its duties. Whether the laws will be amended to act as an actual deterrent, remains a question.
What is certain is that, society faces multiple risks. Women and girls are unsafe. Many convicts are out in the open posing a serious threat. The judicial process is painfully slow, which discourages many victims to even file a case. The Nirbhaya case
happened to come in the limelight and became a national issue. It is considered to be a ‘fast track case’.If a case pending for seven years, happens to be a fast track case, God knows what happens to cases which never come on the news channels.
The trend of delay in justice may lead to a state of anarchy in the society. We are aware of the rising cases of mob lynchings where people take law in their hands, and ‘punish’ the culprit. This reminds me of a bollywwod movie ‘MOM’.It picturises how a mother takes the law in her hands, when her stepdaughter, a gang-rape victim, is denied justice. The furious mother sets out to destroy the lives of the four perpetrators
who walked away free.
Are we slowly inching towards this dangerous remedy? In the same movie, there is a reference to the Mahabharata. A character, ignorant of this epic, asks, Kaha hai ye Draupadi? ( where is Draupadi?) The answer is, everywhere!
According to the latest NCRB data, as many as 33,356 incidents of rape were reported during 2018, including 33,977 victims, an average of 89 rapes daily. This data does not include the cases which are not reported due to social stigma, poverty,’ purity’ factor linked to females, unsupportive police and never-ending court cases.
I, nowhere intend to paint a pessimistic picture of the society or the judiciary or the system at large. I do not intend to foretell anarchy in the country. I do intend to say that the maxim, “Justice delayed is justice denied” happens to materialise at an exorbitant level in our country. Steps must be taken to ensure that justice is not only done, but also seemed to be done. Needless to mention that the law must be made
deterrent enough, so that we do not have 89 Draupadi’s everyday!