Scrap ‘judges’ discretion’ in capital crimes like rape and murder. This has been my oft-repeated plea ever since I first read the phrase ‘rarest of rare’ as a student of law!
Law, in its most refined definition, is supposed to be sheer ‘common-sense’! If this is the truth, then why are laws in India, even after tremendous leapfrog growth in the graph and types of litigation being agitated before the hi-tech era judiciary, still so ambiguous in their treatment of crime?
Where is the need to let the principles of natural justice, fair-play and good-conscience override the clear-cut provisions laid down under the criminal jurisprudence system of the country?
Even the most barbaric societies that had nomads as their proud members, and practised polygamy have reformed the public justice systems towards a more civilized punishment for ‘killing the killers’!
Why then is India still stuck to the one-upmanship statute style injected by pre-independence India and ‘discretionary powers’ left in the hands of judges to determine and decide to award the death-penalty only in the ‘rarest-of-rare’ cases?
On a more humane note, we all are aware of most of these learned judges, lower trial court magistrates onwards to the apex court, are often deeply religious and hesitate to take away the life of a human-being even though he or she is accused and proven guilty ‘beyond any iota of doubt’ that the heinous crime was committed and the accused in the dock is in fact guilty!
So, why not address the simple, plain truth: can murder be classified as rare, common or uncommon? Is molestation of dignity and personality of a girl, lady and woman different, in proportions of harm, crime and vilification of victims? No. Certainly not!
Hence and therefore, let there be a new law code in place that defines the conduct of judges in trials more than that of biased, paid advocates defending those accused of these heinous crimes.
Let there be a law that says the punishment for ‘rape and killing of the victim’ is the death penalty and the trial should not span more than three weeks and appeal period not more than a fortnight at each stage of appeal from the trial court to the Supreme Court. Besides, no further delay in the execution of these criminals held guilty by the court, after a trial procedure must be occasioned, on grounds if he or she belongs to a certain religion or caste or country.
Unless and until the judges of even the highest ‘temple of justice’ are stripped of such ‘discretionary’ powers of judging ‘rarest-of-rare’ cases and diluting the degree and monstrosity of the criminal deed, the spate of news hounds smelling only rot in a robust criminal
justice system boasting of best of brains in the judiciary and most hardworking officers in the police department will continue unabated.
While on the subject, it is pertinent to direct the State Governments in the country to bifurcate law and order and investigation functions as separate departments in the Home Ministry to radically cut down on the phenomenon of corruption rampant in the process of investigation resulting in gross travesty as well as the miscarriage of justice.
Abandon the phrase -‘rarest of rare’ and award capital punishment of death-penalty to every accused found guilty in the dastardly crimes of rape and murder. Anything less will be only a mockery of justice and anti-humanity!
The right of an accused must be secondary, only to the supreme rights of the wronged to have the wrong remedies: the honour of a person disrobed cannot be worn back except by way of awarding deterrent punishment of death by hanging to the criminal so that the incidence of such shameful episodes reduces and ends one glorious day.
A simple example is a disciplined manner in which persons of Indian nationality or origin drive their cars on the roads of Dubai or California even as many of them continue to race like packs of drunken monkeys with lorry-horns fixed to cheap scooters and motorcycles in Delhi or other cities of India.
Enforcement can work wonders in understanding the essence of law and the need to remove loopholes in the written laws of the country. No crime is rare nor varies in degrees. Bias and prejudice are subjective. Murder without prediction or conspiracy has as many foul results as the latter. The law has accounted for the consideration of human factor of impulsive action when the three defenses to charges of murder and culpable homicide are prescribed. Period.
Wake up, India! There is no rarest of the rare crime in the category of rape and murders. All such criminals be hung by the rope as instantaneously as their inhuman crimes.
Discussion about this post