Comments to Justice Verma Commission for amendment to Criminal Laws relating to safety and security of women
Comments to Justice Verma Commission for amendment to Criminal Laws relating to safety and security of women
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Dt. 05/01/2013
Chairman, Hon’ble Justice J S
Verma,
Justice Verma Committee,
New Delhi – 110001
Justice Verma Committee,
New Delhi – 110001
Sub: Heinous crime of rape of 16th
December 2012 and the Government proposed legislation to address the problems
being faced by women- Sexual Assault, Rape, Domestic Violence, 498a, 406 etc
etc.- Response to the Public Notice
Respected
Sir,
A
rape reported through media in a moving
bus in Delhi on the night of 16th December 2012 has shaken the
entire country and in fact the way the crime has been conducted is never heard
in the life time and the culprits whosoever needs to be punished under rarest
of the rare crime category.
The
entire episode of the crime has compelled Government of India to reconsider the
penal provisions vis-a-vis crime against women. Accordingly the Commission has
been entrusted to recommend the legislators for an appropriate Act covering
whole gamut of crime against women.
In
view of the proposed legislation covering crime against women, there is a need
to keep in view the earlier Acts which have been enacted and covers the crime
against women. Some of the Acts are Domestic Violence, 498a, 406, HMA, Sexual
Assault etc. etc. No doubts these Acts were enacted to safe guard the women but
the way these Acts have been exploited and misused to settle the scores with
the men cannot be over sighted. Various stakeholders have used the terms like “Legal extortion”. Perusal of number of
judgements by the superior courts are examples of prevailing corruption in the
implementing agencies. A well employed woman (even in the range of Rs. 1.00
lakh per month) drags the case in the court on the pretext of maintenance. Why
such cases are not out rightly rejected even to be entertained at the time of
filing application and the husband ordeal starts. All police machinery sets
into motion for grabbing the property of parents-in-law where even prima facie
evidences are existing that the parents-in-law property is not a matrimonial
house. Even the Supreme Court orders are set aside in the expectation of bribe.
The police need to be more accountable to such harassment to the families and
officials identified and penal action initiated. A woman simply files a
complaint and then whole of the machinery sets into motion. Close to 98% cases
have been found being misused by women and their relatives. This has resulted
into manifold increase in divorces besides putting entire affected family to
ransom. A complaint of Ms. Nisha Sharma alleging dowry demand at the time of
marriage ceremony ruined the family and the groom for about many years and
ultimately turned out to be a case of false complaint. A girl alleged of her
rape in the parking of Mahagun Mall turned out to be a case of extortion of
money from her boy friend and Media made a hue and cry of the incidence in
favour of the girl who filed a false complaint. A recent complaint of 42 years
woman (resident of Jaipur) registered a complaint in the Kalkaji Police Station
alleging rape on the way from Vrindavan to Delhi turned out to be false which
was filed for some property disputes. There are number of reports appearing in
the media are the testimony to the theory of filing false cases against men. A
woman was found to have married with many men in a period of just one year
proves that how effective are the provisions of Acts to extort the money either
through police cases or cheating the men. In fact, the reporting of number of
false complaints in proportion to the genuine cases are making a story of “Wolf and Shepherd”
delivering injustice to the genuine victimised women. The false cases are also
victimising on an average two to three times more women as the women members
(sister-in-law, mother-in-law) of the husband families are also falsely
implicated and have to face wrath of the police atrocities. The laws made for
the welfare and safety of the women are the laws to officially and legally
victimise the women and the main backbone is the prevailing corruption and
opaqueness in the legal system. The legal agencies threatening the husband for
parting away the hard earned money stating “so many verdicts have been announced for hanging till death”. A woman whether living with husband’s family
or not will name the husband and his entire family. There have been instances
when the family members have committed suicides as soon as FIRs are registered.
Police starts violating even the codes which are even advised by the Hon’ble Superior
Courts in their various judgements as the affected family is an ordinary person
not from the background of legal and having no knowledge of laws. Police starts
victimising the families and then further harassing through a mediation process.
Mediators start negotiating with the family with the quantum of money that they
can afford or willing to pay to the family. The least is commented about the
corruption prevailing in the Police Department and the Mediation Centres, the
better it is. Even there is a trend where the SHO speaks on behalf of the so
called woman victim and money is negotiated. The families which don’t want to
pay any amount are harassed through the practice of dragging of the cases in the
court which are also biased. With the
change of time, education, modern society and western culture invading into the
country, it has now become myth to believe that the woman speaks truth. The
principle of natural justice speaks providing punishment to guilty and relief
to innocent. It needs to ensure that no provisions are abused. Decency in the
culture needs to be observed as part of the responsibility else indecent
wearing by the men may also not be objected as an offence under displaying of
sexual organs. However, such needs to be reserved under citizen education as it
is of social problem. Asserting rights needs to be preceded by discharge of
responsibilities. Some of the statistics at Table 1 and 2 indicates that it is
the category of males which are mostly suffering as compared to females and
needs to be referred during the enactment process.
Table1: Number of
Suicides (Source: NCRB)
Year
|
Total Suicide
|
Married Men
|
Married Women
|
2005
|
113914
|
52583
|
28188
|
2006
|
118112
|
55452
|
29869
|
2007
|
122637
|
57593
|
30064
|
2008
|
125017
|
57639
|
30224
|
2009
|
127151
|
58192
|
31300
|
2010
|
134599
|
61453
|
31754
|
2011
|
135585
|
62433
|
32582
|
Table 2:
Number of Suicides (Source: NCRB)
2010
|
2011
|
|||
Males
|
Females
|
Males
|
Females
|
|
Total
|
87180
|
47419
|
87839
|
47746
|
Family Problems
|
19828
|
12028
|
20345
|
12564
|
Dowry Dispute
|
80
|
3013
|
139
|
3100
|
Fall in Social Reputation
|
843
|
479
|
691
|
469
|
Love Affairs
|
2216
|
1950
|
2483
|
2103
|
Physical Abuse (rape Incest etc.)
|
77
|
224
|
85
|
201
|
The
Acts are being used as a tool for empowerment of police to extract the money.
The enactment of the legislations needs to be based on the following
principles:
1.
Transparency
2.
Addressing the scope of corruption
3.
Addressing the scope of abuse of any of the provision of the
Act.
4.
Equal Punishment to the guilty irrespective of their Gender that
means the enactment of legislation to be Gender Neutral. A person filing a
false complaint also to be termed as guilty for the purpose of award of similar
quantum of punishment and penalties.
5.
Use of simple language to be understood by an average educated
person
6.
Redefining in an objective manner the definition of sexual
assault, rape, domestic violence. There may not be any scope of subjectivity.
7.
Principle of Natural Justice
8.
Equality among Genders
9.
Faster Delivery System of Justice
10.
Accountability of Media on gender biased media trial
11.
Complaint redressal system to handle complaints of harassment,
corruption etc. by the implementing agencies.
I
would submit before your lordship to address the foregoing issues in your
proposed legislation:
1. As
mentioned above, all existing Acts concerning crime against women may be
repealed to be replaced with a single Act with all the provisions concerning
safety and welfare of women.
2. The
proposed enactment of the Act may please be ensured to be implemented in a
transparent manner and all the information be made available on the web-site.
The web-site may contain statistics of No. of cases reported, FIR registered,
FIR dropped, name and other details of the complainant and her family if the
complaint is found to be false so that the other persons don’t fall prey to
such women. The transparency in the information is likely to deter the women
filing complaint with ulterior motives to settle their personal scores. All the
Police Stations/ women police stations should update the information on real
time basis and the appropriate information should be available for public
viewing especially with respect to the persons abusing the process irrespective
of the sex.
3. To
avoid misuse of the Act, the laws may be incorporated to award the same level
of penalty and punishment to the women in case the complaint has been found
false lodged with ulterior motives. The meaning of the equal punishment should
be one to one which implies that if there is a punishment of say 7 years
imprisonment for the rape, then 7 years imprisonment may be awarded to the
woman in case her complaint is found false. If the women has implicated 4
members of the family in a domestic violence complaint and the complaint is
found to be false then all the 4 members of her family to be granted the same
level of punishment which would have been awarded had the offence been truly committed. This would ensure that the provisions are
not abused for settling their personal scores and only the genuine cases are
reported so that the state machinery is set into motion for its effective role.
The victimised family due to false complaint should be financially compensated
to be paid by the false complainant as the filing of false complaint causes
financial loss besides loss of their reputation due to harassment from the law
enforcing agencies. A news report that
has appeared and may please be perused on http://dailypostindia.com/news/41829-seven-false-rape-cases-registered-in-punjab-in-two-days.html
which states that out of 11 cases
registered during two days (at a time when the consultation process still going
on and the legislation is yet to be enacted) 7 cases have been found false and
Punjab Police is now taking action to drop the FIR registered in these 7 cases.
Two more cases on which investigation are still going on are in the category of
highly doubtful. These 7 cases where the Police have already found to be false
must have caused mental trauma to the accused and their family besides
financial spending, loss of reputation. This is at a stage where still no laws
have been enacted for death penalty. It is clearly indicative if the death
penalty is provided as a punishment in the legislation without addressing the
issue of “gender
neutral” the provisions would be
abused with false allegations and it may not be in the interest of the society
to be left with only females. FIR may be registered only when there is a prima
facie case not just in a routine manner on filing the complaint. There is a
need of more accountability of the implementing agencies with penal provisions.
Implementing agencies may also include any other agency but not limiting to
Police, Mediators, Legal, FSL etc.
4. There
have been reports even in some of the cases that Medical reports have been
fabricated by the police in convenience with law enforcing agencies. The
proposed legislation may also address the issue of such malpractices prevailing
in associated agencies with penal action.
5. All
the proceedings in cases under crime against women may be heard with a
provision of CCTV cameras not only for video recording but also voice recording.
6. The
proposed laws should have provision of time frame of filing charge sheet, grant
of divorce and other associated issues. It is seen that the charge sheets are
not filed even for years hanging a sword on the neck of the falsely implicated
accused. The element of corruption is prevailing in these agencies and the
proposed legislation should take care of such possibilities. The noting of
family courts may be made available on a real time basis on the internet as
being done in High Court proceedings.
7. The
laws under proposed enactment should encourage citizen education keeping in
view that the misuse would result only in society disintegration. The laws
should be spelled out in a very simple language looking at the profile of
Indian population wherein more than 70% belongs to rural areas and 100%
population is the stakeholder of the proposed enactment.
8. The
proposed laws should be gender neutral as the harmony is the basic need of the
time. It cannot carry on with one sex either female or male. The charges like “that the wife has been raped by the
husband” need to be excluded from the definition of sexual assault as these
have been used only for the purpose of blackmailing and extortion.
9.
The proposed laws should also
address the issue of misuse by Police Department/ Mediation Centres specially
Investigating Officer. IOs have been heard saying “aaj karo ya dus saal baad karo ley dey key hee
kutch hoga, case toh samjhotey sey hee khatam hoga chahye aap bees saal tak wait
karo” “kanoon mera kya ukhaad lega” etc. etc.
10. All
the cases falling under crime against women shall be referred to fast track
court and the proceedings conducted therein under camera with an objective of transparency
and judicial accountability. The cases of crime against women should be
disposed off within
one year from the date of FIR else the cases may be treated as
dropped. Let the parties to the disputes settle their new life as the State has
got no right to spoil the once shorten life by dragging the case for years in
some case even 10 to 15 years. A railway employee at the age of 58 years was
falsely implicated for sexual assault to settle a score and the trial ended
when he was at the age of 70 years i.e he had to face ordeal for 12 years at a
time when he was to settle peacefully and having no other income where his all terminal
benefits were kept on hold have to struggle for even bread and butter at the
fag end of his life. No amount of compensation can bring back his sufferings
for about 12 years at the fag end of his life.
11. The
proposed laws may also recommend setting up of Ministry for Men or Men
Commission on the similar lines of Women Commission keeping in view the “Principle of Natural Justice”. The
accused to be arrested only after establishing of prima facie evidences and not
in a routine manner. While the state machinery may be set into motion
immediately on receipt of a simple complaint, FIR may be registered only after
receiving the complaint on an affidavit.
12. The accused should be treated as
innocent unless proven guilty. The charges need to be proved instead of proving innocence.
13. Any
case being dragged beyond the stipulated period of justice delivery should be
reflected in the ACR of all stakeholders.
14. The
returns of assets of all officials involved in the implementing agencies be
made publically and updated regularly on annual basis.
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