The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has noted that juveniles are being treated "excessively leniently" in the country and criticized the legislature for having "failed to draw lessons" from the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case.
In the previous order, Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the high court's Indore bench made these strongly-worded observations while dismissing an appeal filed by a man against the lower court's sentence in the case of four-year-old girl's rape in 2017.
The convict was 17 years old at the time of the rape incident in 2017. He escaped from a juvenile correction home in 2019 along with seven other boys, six months after being sentenced.
"As a parting note, this Court is once again at pains to observe that juveniles in this country are being treated rather too leniently, & that the Legislature, to the utter misfortune of the victims of such crimes, has still not learnt any lessons from the horrors of Nirbhaya, reported as (2017) 6 SCC 1 (Mukesh v. State NCT of Delhi)."
"Looking to the overwhelming medical evidence available in the present case, it does not take an expert to see as to how demonic the appellant's conduct was while he was a juvenile, & his mindset can also be gathered from the fact that he has also absconded from the observation home. He is presently at large, probably lurking in some dark corner of the street, for yet another prey, & there is nobody to stop him," the court observed.
An additional sessions judge in Indore sentenced the convict to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment on May 8, 2019, under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court also ruled that he should be sent to jail upon turning 21.
The convict, who absconded from the juvenile home with seven other boys on November 13, 2019, challenged the lower court's sentence in the high court through an appeal. After hearing both sides, the high court upheld the lower court's decision and dismissed the convict's appeal.
The high court has directed that a warrant be issued for the arrest of the absconding appellant so that he can serve the remaining portion of his sentence for the rape case.
The Nirbhaya case refers to the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, which led to widespread protests across the country and intensified calls for stricter laws to address such crimes.
"And, although such voices are being raised time & again by the Constitutional Courts of this country, to the utter dismay of the victims, they have not been able to make any impact on the legislature even after a decade of Nirbhaya which took place in the year 2012," it said.
"Let a copy of this order be sent to the Law Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi (India)", the court said.
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