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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court said today that a “heavy hand” should be used to deal with rape convicts, underlining that a “casual, indifferent, perfunctory approach or an insensitive attitude” by subordinate courts would not be tolerated.
The Bench comprising Justices C K Thakker and Altamas Kabir said that courts are “expected to try and decide cases of sexual crime against women with utmost sensitivity”. It observed that a “socially sensitised judge is a better armour in cases of crime against women than a long clause of penal provisions, containing complex exceptions and provisos.”
Today’s ruling came a day after another apex court Bench comprising Justices G P Mathur and G S Sinhvi ruled that “whether the rape has occurred or not is a legal conclusion, not a medical one”. Hearing a case related to the rape of a minor, the Bench held that “it is quite possible to commit the offence of rape without producing any injury to the genitals or leaving any seminal status.”
The Bench today set aside the judgement of a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge who reduced the seven-year imprisonment of a rape convict to two months and three days which he had already undergone after his arrest.
Criticising this attitude, the apex court said the High Court judge had committed a grave “miscarriage of justice”.
