Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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.
                          http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-CII2011/Statistics2011.pdf (retrieved Jan 24, 2013)

Bibliography  National Crime Reports Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs.
                          http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-CII2011/Statistics2011.pdf (retrieved Jan 24, 2013)


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)

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