{"id":28366,"date":"2024-08-27T18:23:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T12:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=28366"},"modified":"2025-07-12T15:44:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T10:14:46","slug":"what-justice-verma-panel-say-on-death-penalty-for-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/27-08-2024\/what-justice-verma-panel-say-on-death-penalty-for-rape","title":{"rendered":"What Justice Verma panel say on death penalty for rape?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The recommendations of Justice J.S. Verma Committee was in news, after the clamour of voices seeking the death penalty for the accused of the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>Justice J.S. Verma Committee recommendations,<\/strong> which led to the <strong>amendment of criminal laws in 2013<\/strong>, was set up after the gang rape of a paramedic student in Delhi in 2012.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The committee pointed out that seeking the <strong>death penalty would be a regressive step<\/strong> in the field of sentencing and reformation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recommendations of the Committee&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Justice Verma Committee provided for <strong>increasing the minimum sentence for rape<\/strong> from 7 years to 10 years, with provisions for a sentence of 20 years or even life imprisonment.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>However, the Committee <strong>did not recommend the death penalty<\/strong> for rape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The committee pointed out that \u201cthere is considerable evidence that the deterrent effect of the death penalty on serious crimes is actually a myth.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>According to the <strong>Working Group on Human Rights,<\/strong> the murder rate has declined consistently in India over the last 20 years despite the slowdown in the execution of death sentences since 1980.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stance of Union Cabinet<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Union Cabinet did not take the recommendation on the death penalty when it cleared an ordinance on <strong>sexual assault in 2013,<\/strong> and signed the criminal amendments into law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Key amendments were brought in to provide the <strong>death penalty for rape that led to death of the victim<\/strong> or reduced her to a persistent vegetative state (<strong>Section 376A <\/strong>of the Indian Penal Code) and anyone found guilty of rape more than once (<strong>Section 376E<\/strong>).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In 2018<\/strong>, further changes introduced <strong>death as the maximum punishment<\/strong> for every participant in a gang rape when the <strong>victim is less than 12 years old (Section 376DB)<\/strong>, and <strong>life-long imprisonment if the victim is less than 16 (Section 376DA).&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under the new <strong>Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita<\/strong>, punishment for rape is laid down in several Sections including <strong>64, 65 and 70(2)<\/strong>, which notes the punishment for gang rape of a woman under the age of 18 is the death penalty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stance of Verma Committee on Marital Rape<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Verma Committee recommended that the <strong>exception to <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/12-05-2022\/marital-rape\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/12-05-2022\/marital-rape\"><strong>marital rape<\/strong><\/a><strong> be removed,<\/strong> pointing out that \u201ca marital or other relationship between the perpetrator or victim is not a valid defence against the crimes of rape or sexual violation.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Concurring with the judgment of the European Commission of Human Rights, the Committee endorsed the conclusion that a <strong>rapist remains a rapist regardless of his relationship with the victim.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>However the Union government did not go by this recommendation and refused to criminalise marital rape.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concluding Remarks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Verma Committee pointed out<\/strong> that the ethos of empowerment of women does not limit itself to political equality, but also extends, in equal terms, to <strong>social, educational, and economic equality.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For true empowerment of women it is necessary that law, as well as public policy, must be capable of engaging substantially with<strong> women\u2019s rights, opportunities, acquisition of skills, the ability to generate self-confidence<\/strong> and insist on total equality in relationships, both with society and the state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: TH<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recommendations of Justice J.S. Verma Committee was in news, after the clamour of voices seeking the death penalty for the accused of the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30762,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28366\/revisions\/30762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}