Justice Verma Commission’s omissions and blind spots
The Justice
Verma committee was constituted during the aftermath of the horrific rape in
Delhi on Dec 23, 2012. The mandate was to look into possible amendments to the
criminal law to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishments for criminals
committing “sexual assaults of extreme nature” (Verma Commission report, 1) against
women.
The committee submitted its report on Jan
23, 2013. The committee must be commended for submitted its report within the
stipulated time. For the framing this
report the committee took inputs from citizens, Indain NGO’s, foreign NGOs.
One of the recommendations of the report is
to expand the definition of rape which is quite narrow now. However it still
does not go far and make rape gender neutral, which is badly needed. It also recommends considering eve teasing
and stalking as crimes punishable with jail time. These suggestions are
sensible and most of us agree.
The panel is against decreasing the age of
juveniles to 16 from the current 18. So, if you go by the Verma panel injustice
report, the juvenile who inserted a rod into the 23 year old Nirbhaya and
pulled out her intestines will be out in a few months to rip off other women's
intestines, wombs. And he will not see a day in the jail. There is nothing fair
or just about this situation.
According to
the Juvenile Justice Act a Juvenile is someone whose age at the time of crime
is less than 18. And Verma panel thinks there is no need to reduce this age, nor
does it have any provision to recognize violent, brutal crime like rape, gang rape, and torture as
adult crimes. A serious loophole in the law remains to the detriment of safety
of women and children.
This is a serious
issue juvenile crime has been increasing at an alarming pace. Juvenile crime
committed by 16-18 yr olds increased from 2010 to 2011 by 12.5%. In 2011
juveniles in the age group of 16-18 yrs committed 63.9% of all the juvenile
crimes (National Crime Bureau Statistics, 2).
Unfortunately, juvenile violent crime like rape and murder is
increasing. Justice Verma report does not have any suggestions to combat this
menace to the society.
All it has is
some anecdotes about genuine juveniles who committed minor non violent crime
and were ill treated in juvenile homes. It has concerns about juvenile
rehabilitation, a section regarding the juvenile brain and neurological
development. These are worthy issues but, do nothing to reduce violent crime
against women.
Another glaring loophole of the report is
the commission’s blind spot when it comes to the functioning of judiciary. It
does not take into cognizance the inordinate delays in the judiciary and
lenient attitude of the Justices when it comes to sexual assault against women.
Nor or there
any mandatory sentencing guidelines, or guidelines on parole issues. Recently
in Pune (PuneMirror.in, 3) a pedophile raped and murdered another girl after he
was paroled for 'good behavior'. His
previous crime was rape and murder of another child and the Maharashtra HC did
not find this crime rarest of the rare. This ‘rarest of the rare’ is very
subjective and must be objectively defined.
It is disappointing that commission did not even find this ‘application
of rarest of the rare’ a travesty of justice.
Another instance of judiciary failing in its
duty is the case of Priyadarshini Matto. Her rapist murderer is out on parole
and has a kid. Where is justice for Priyadarshini and her family? In spite of
some high sounding talk about women having equal rights, the panel’s
recommendation do not do much in ensuring justice for victims. Strangely
victims’ rights are given a pass and an inordinate rationalization of ‘Juvenile
mind’ in case of abhorrent crime of juveniles.
While such serious issues still remain it is
disappointing that the commission deemed fit to bring in ‘Marital rape’ clause
where the consent is not presumed.
“Explanation III: Consent will not be presumed in the
event of an existing marital
relationship between the
complainant and the accused” ( Verma
Commission report, P. 466)
This marital rape clause is
not relevant for the security of women in public places. This clause must be
part of the domestic violence. This clause if incorporated will be very prone
to misuse if the marriage is falling apart. There is nothing to stop a woman
charging her husband with ‘marital rape’ for better settlement of assets during
a divorce. Dowry laws are a good example. So, if entirely different issues are
mixed up, there will not be consensus for harsher crimes for rape/assault
defeating the entire purpose of this exercise.
The commission wants to add a section
376F, (Verma Commission
report, p. 471) according to which a commanding officer (CO) is liable for
punishment if his sub ordinate commits a rape. And the punishment is “rigorous
imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years, but may
extend to ten years.” This is an insane idea, why should the superior be held
criminally responsible for a crime committed by his underlings unless he is directly
culpable. This law does not seem to apply for civilians, or judiciary. If it did
MMS, Sonia and Sheila Dixit would be in jail for 2G, Coal gate, CWG etc.
According to the commission this breach of
command responsibility applies only to armed forces and police. This clearly
does not apply to judiciary, so when a judge paroles a criminal or commutes the
punishment and the criminal goes on to commit another crime the Judge is not
responsible. As mentioned earlier in Pune a convicted pedophile out on parole
for good behavior raped and killed another girl. So, should the judge be held
responsible and jailed for 10 yrs or more?
In fact no accountability is demanded of
civilian administration. For example in this Nirbhaya case the cops were
negligent and allowed the bus to ply as it passed through their check posts
just because the bus operator paid the required hafta. Should not these people
suffer for being corrupt and indirectly responsible for this horrific rape? If
not criminal punishment, shouldn’t their careers suffer? And who in the
transportation department allowed this bus to be on the roads after it was
impounded in March 2012? Perhaps demanding that the buses that ply on the roads
should have insurance for accidents and also criminal liability in case of
criminal wrong doing on part of drivers and cleaners. This would have made the
owners more responsible. Addressing these issues would have made Delhi roads
much safer.
The report seems to be tailor made for the
HR galleries of the West and home turf, not to improve safety of women here. On
28 Jan, 2013 the Juvenile Justice Board declared that the most brutal of the
Nirbhaya rapist was a juveniles based on an entry in the school register. It should be noted that the entry was based on
a word by the sadist’s father, without any documentary proof. This shows how
little thought has gone into framing laws which are just and fair. And Verma
panel woefully underperforms in this regard.
On the whole the report is a below average rough
draft and needs serious revision for it to make any difference on ground. This
report does not increase the deterrence value of the punishment at all. Rape
and sexual assault are not prosecuted properly, there were 568 rape cases in New
Delhi (ND) in 2011 and only one was getting prosecuted. And there was a nearly
23% increase in the reported rape cases in ND in 2012. If the criminals think
they can get away with rape and sexual assault they have statistics on their
side. Unfortunately this report does not address this ground reality and
instead goes off tangent.
First Note: 2. National Crime Reports Bureau, Ministry
of Home Affairs.
Bibliography National Crime Reports Bureau, Ministry of
Home Affairs.
First Note: 1: Report of the
committee On Amendments to Criminal Law. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/realtime/justice_js_verma_committee_report.pdf (retrieved Jan25, 2013)
First Note…. 3. Report
of the committee On Amendments to Criminal Law, Section 376F, Offence of breach of command
responsibility (pg 445-446)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/realtime/justice_js_verma_committee_report.pdf (retrieved Jan25, 2013)
First Note:
3. Serial Rapist on Parole,
rapes murders another minor girl
http://www.punemirror.in/article/4/2013011420130114073613222d0a8e29a/Serial-rapist-on-parole-rapes-murders-minor-girl.html?pageno=3
(Retrieved on 28 Jan, 2013)
Labels: New Delhi Gang Rape, Verma Commission Report
posted by M. Patil @ 2:02 AM
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