Death to all” — the judgment of the fast-track Delhi court pronounced in the Nirbhaya case on Friday could be anticipated, such was the beastly nature of the crime and the shock expressed by an angered nation.
The attention of the whole country was focused on this case, and the judicial machinery moved with all the despatch it could summon. But the question remains: Does the quantum of sentence — hanging till dead, not life imprisonment — make women safer from male predators?
This is a civilisational issue and not just a matter of a verdict in a particular case. The statistics of rape of most recent times points to a problem existing in Indian men and in their attitude to women. There is also the all-important issue of law enforcement. Death by hanging may not be the judgment in all cases of rape or murder, or rape-cum-murder. But even if the sentence is somewhat lighter, plainly what is needed is a realistic fear in the rapist that he cannot get away. Indeed, it has been argued that the certainty of penalty may be the best deterrent there exists, rather than the quantum.
In this particular case, it is not unlikely that the defendants will take the matter for confirmation to the high court, and then the Supreme Court, if necessary. And finally, of course, is the stage of the President’s pardon that has been debated much of late. We can only hope for the soundness of the judicial mind at all stages.
In the final analysis, the issue boils down to the manner in which the male of the species is raised in our society. Partiality from early childhood in relation to female siblings is the norm, resulting in later life to a society-wide sense of impunity and even sexual entitlement over females. This mindset contributes significantly to the police not registering cases relating to “eve-teasing” by the “Adams” of the species. Frequently it is this that turns into the monster — behaviour of rape and other sexual crimes against women.
India may have executed only three convicts in the last nine years but the prospect of four of the six convicted — one committed suicide in prison and another is a juvenile — going to the gallows does not chill the bone merely because of the depravity of their actions. As such, the minor may have got away with three years in a reform home but the time may have come to take a fresh look at the question of punishments in “rarest of rare” cases, especially in the context of crimes of a perverted nature against women. The efficacy of the judicial machinery must be commensurate with this approach.