DC Edit | Justice Above Technicalities
Rape is one of the worst offences that puts the victim through long-term physical, psychological, and emotional trauma. If the public authorities, who were supposed to protect the law, begin to violate it, they need extraordinary punishment
The Supreme Court’s decision to stay the Delhi High Court’s suspension of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s life sentence based on mere technical grounds is a welcome development.
Sengar was convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl, who approached him for a job in June 2017 at Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, and of getting the victim’s father killed in judicial custody. He and his family allegedly tried to browbeat the victim’s family through rioting in 2017 and attacking the victim’s aunts and lawyer in July 2019. He was convicted and given a life imprisonment under Section 5(C) and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences.
Rape is one of the worst offences that puts the victim through long-term physical, psychological, and emotional trauma. If the public authorities, who were supposed to protect the law, begin to violate it, they need extraordinary punishment. This was the rationale behind Section 5(c) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso), which deals with aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
The imprisonment for penetrative sexual assault under Section 4 of the Pocso is a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. For aggravated penetrative sexual assault, the convict can be imprisoned for a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life imprisonment.
Sengar’s lawyer convinced the Delhi High Court that a legislator does not come under the definition of a public servant and got his sentence suspended — even though he was imprisoned only for seven years and five months, which is less than the minimum sentence of 10 years' jail given in any rape case.
The Unnao case represented the triumph of David over Goliath and the weak over the strong. The victim and her family faced several challenges and harassment to get the former Unnao legislator punished. After such an extraordinary struggle, if the convict was released, merely on technical grounds, it would be a travesty of justice.
The Supreme Court must be applauded for preventing the miscarriage of justice.