News reports on television screens say the government would consider death penalty in the ‘rarest of rare rape’ cases.

How does one react to this, really?

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde announced that to ensure a strong law to deal with crimes of this nature, the Government would take immediate steps. This implies amendment of criminal law for more effective punishment in the rarest of the rare cases of sexual assault, such as what happened to a 23-year-old in a moving bus in Delhi. It is, however, very difficult to understand the statement.

Grievous IMPACT

So, does this now mean that under the law there will be various definitions of rape, and punishment pronounced accordingly? Does one talk of ‘petty’, ‘ordinary’ or ‘heinous’ or ‘rarest of the rare’ case of rape? Honestly, can anyone categorise rape in this jejune manner?

Rape is rape, period. And a woman’s ordeal only gets worse at every step. Besides the pain and indignity suffered, she has to establish that she has really been raped by narrating the whole incident to law keepers and judiciary. She has to undergo medical examination to prove that she has been raped.

But for the man accused of the crime, since thorough medical evidence is required to convict him, the process may take years.

In the meanwhile, the woman who has been raped faces social shame, even ostracism. Sympathy for her dries up alongside talk that she must have provoked the incident.

All the while, the accused is in jail as an undertrial, getting four meals a day and even the occasional parole. He will not be required to live with shame even after completing the jail term, but the victim has no such option.

JUDICIAL PRECEDENT

Maximum punishment for rape under the prevailing law can be extended to life imprisonment. Although we have the example of the Dhananjay case where the accused was hanged, was that punishment for rarest of rare rape? No, it was the rarest of rare crime and that is why he was awarded the death penalty.

Since extreme crime invites life imprisonment, or capital punishment in the rarest of the rare instances, why this talk about ‘rarest of the rare’ rape?

Such talk takes away clarity from what needs to be done — treat rape as a heinous crime against women and mete out punishment accordingly.

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