Gruesome crime that made rape punishable by death

Mar 21, 2020, 04.56 AM IST

New Delhi: Death penalty for rapists who brutalise their victim, full trial as adults for juveniles accused of heinous offences and fast-track courts for speedy trial in sexual assault cases — these are some of the far-reaching changes made in the country’s criminal law following a unprecedented public outrage over the horrific gang rape of Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012.

As protesters took to the street on rising crimes against women, the Centre set up a three-member committee under former Chief Justice of India J S Verma to propose changes in law to curb sexual offences. Accepting some of the recommendations, the government tightened laws dealing with sexual offences against women and brought in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 that provided a rigorous life term and a death term for rape convicts.

Till the Nirbhaya incident happened, offences such as acid attacks, stalking and voyeurism were seen as lesser crimes, but the amendments included stringent punishments even for these. For the first time, stalking and voyeurism were made non-bailable offences if repeated for a second time, while perpetrators of acid attacks now attract a 10-year jail.

The new law expanded the definition of rape and made it a graded offence. A minimum jail term of seven years may now be extend to imprisonment for natural life and a fine for rapist if he is found to be a police officer, public servant, armed forces personnel or management or hospital staff.

Similarly, it also changed various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure, Indian Evidence Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and provided for handing out death sentence to serial offenders.

The stringent amendments, which came into force on April 3, 2013, altered the definition of rape under IPC 375 and introduced harsher penalty in line with the gravity of offence.

Although the committee had opposed death penalty for rapists and advised life term, the government brought in a new section, 376A, to IPC that introduced death penalty. Under it, if an offender committing sexual assault inflicts an injury that causes death of the victim or renders her into a persistent vegetative state, the convict will be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term that will not be less than 20 years, which may extend to life imprisonment meaning the remainder of a convict’s natural life, or death.

All hospitals now also face punishment if they fail to immediately provide first aid and/or medical treatment free of cost to the survivors of acid attack or rape.

Despite calls for tightening the juvenile offender laws, the committee, in its 630-page report, didn’t suggest any change in minimum age but Parliament in 2015 introduced the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, allowing the courts to try juveniles involved in heinous offences as adults.

Following the report, issued on January 23, 2013, the age of consent was made uniform. However, instead of the suggested 16 years, the government fixed it at 18, which means any sexual activity, irrespective of consent, with a woman below the age of 18 is statutory rape as she is a minor.