NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday endorsed the clamour for deterrent punishment to offenders in cases of crime against women saying no leniency be shown while sentencing the guilty in such cases.
The strong pitch for tougher punishment for those guilty of crime against women came as part of a judgment, where a bench of Justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi upheld life imprisonment for two sisters along with their mother, who were convicted of bride burning.
The verdict also dealt with the evidentiary value of multiple dying declarations in a case particularly if they diverge; an issue of crucial significance for the Nirbhaya case.
The Delhi Police had to record two statements of Nirbhaya following an allegation by a sub-divisional magistrate that senior police officers had tried to influence the recording of the first one. In what could help the prosecution in the horrific gang-rape case, Justices Sathasivam and Gogoi said, "When the court is satisfied that the dying declaration is voluntary, not tainted by tutoring or animosity, and is not a product of her imagination, there is no impediment in convicting the accused on the basis of such dying declaration". The judges added, "When there are multiple dying declarations, each dying declaration has to be separately assessed and evaluated and assess independently on its own merit as to its evidentiary value and one cannot be rejected because of certain variation in the other".
The bench stressed that the need of the hour was to overhaul the criminal justice system to inflict deterrent punishment on those found guilty in cases of crime against women.
Justices Sathasivam and Gogoi focused on the spiraling number of cases relating to bride burning, cruelty, sexual harassment, rape and suicide by women despite the presence of stringent laws to protect women.
The two judges said that while there was no lack of tough laws to deal with the challenge, the deterrent was weakened by the sentencing system as it exists. "A complete overhaul of the system is a must in the form of deterrent punishment for the offenders so that we can effectively deal with the problem," said Justice Sathasivam, who authored the judgment for the bench.
The case in hand related to the murder of Vandana on March 5, 2003, by her mother-in-law Kesharbai and two sisters-in-law Ashabai and Kavita. All three were ill-treating her, despite the husband's protests, for her alleged inability to conceive. On the day of incident, the mother-in-law poured kerosene on her and at the behest of the two sisters-in-law, lit match box and set Vandana on fire.
The victim gave four dying declarations, which were relied on by the Jalgaon trial court to convict the three accused and sentence them to life imprisonment. The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had dismissed their appeals. During the pendency of the appeal in SC, the mother-in-law had died.
The apex court dismissed the appeal of the two sisters as it found that there were no contradictions in the four dying declarations given by the deceased which clearly pointed out the specific roles played by the three accused.
While upholding the conviction of the two sisters in the murder of Vandana and life sentence awarded to them, the bench said, "In view of the clinching evidence led in by the prosecution, there cannot be any leniency in favour of the appellants, who are sisters-in-law of the deceased and at whose instance the deceased was burnt at the hands of her mother-in-law."
dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com
SC endorses chorus for deterrent punishment for crime against women
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SC endorses chorus for deterrent punishment for crime against women
