The Kashmir Scenario Desk
The year 2013 saw many heinous crimes like rapes, gang rapes committed against women in India. But one positive reality that emerged was that courts acted quiet tough against the criminals accused of such heinous crimes .
With voices for checking sexual offences against women getting louder and dynamic with every passing moment following the December 16, 2012 gangrape, special fast-track courts in an appreciable manner came out with some strong decisions in 2013.
Widespread and furious outrage sparked by the gang rape case prompted authorities to set up six fast-track courts at the outset of 2013 to exclusively deal with cases of sexual offences as rape, molestation, eve-teasing, voyeurism, stalking incidents rose manifold in the national capital.
Pertinently, an incident of voyeurism was also reported from the Delhi High Court where women advocates were filmed on a mobile phone in the ladies restroom.
This provided an impetus for fulfilling the demand for putting in place the guidelines laid down in 1997 by the apex court in Vishakha judgement in its precincts for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment at workplace.
Though there was consolation that few of the cases including December 16 gangrape-cum-murder reached its conclusion,there are others like, rape of a five-year-old girl here by two men, which are yet to be decided.
Acting tough, the court in this case invoked on its own the provisions of rape and unnatural offence against the duo facing trial for raping the child on April 15. They are also accused of inserting foreign objects in the minor’s body.
The case saw charges being framed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act which was brought in force in November last year.
The December 16 gang rape case led to amendment to the Indian Penal Code with stricter laws against rape with death penalty if the victim dies or is left in a vegetative state.
Routine ‘misdemeanor’ like eve-teasing, stalking and voyeurism also came to be expressly defined as non-bailable offences.
At the beginning of the last quarter of 2013, the court sentenced the convicts in the December 16 case to death while admonishing the gravity of the incident and “hair-raising beastly and unparalleled behaviour”.
Amid protests for convictions in rape cases, there was a rise in false complaints of rape and sexual offences and courts noted that judiciary cannot be swayed by public outcry.
While the debate on rape cases and false complaints was on, a judge’s remark that “girls are morally and socially bound not to indulge in sexual relation before proper marriage and if they do so, it would be to their peril and they cannot be heard crying later that it was rape” created controversy.
The December 16 case was not the only rape case in which death penalty was awarded to the culprits.
One hopes that in 2014 the law would continue to deal with iron hand with those elements who commit heinous crimes especially those committed against women and make an example of such criminals so that crimes against women vanish.