Two gangrapes that shocked the nation and two different verdicts. While Friday saw the country revisiting the horror of the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder with the Supreme Court upholding the decision of the high court and trial court to award a death sentence to all four men involved, it also saw the Bombay High Court upholding the life sentence awarded by the trial court to the 11 accused in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case.
Hailing the Supreme Court’s verdict, Justice Michael Saldanha, a former judge of the Karnataka High Court says courts need to take a no-nonsense approach to rape and similar offences. “ I have said in my judgements that when the nature of the offence is horrible the offender has already forfeited his right to live," he recalled
As for the verdict on the rapists of 19-year-old Bilkis Bano,who was attacked in Randhikpur near Ahmedabad, during the Gujarat riots of 2002, Justice Saldahna says life imprisonment means the taxpayer will have to pay for her rapists' time in prison. "It is sad and reflects the inefficiency of the judicial system. In this case, sympathy has been shown and I don't see why. Just because time has elapsed it cannot be a ground for leniency. According to me there should be uniformity of decision. We cannot have one state awarding death sentence and another life imprisonment," he added.
Also welcoming the verdict in the Nirbhaya case, former Lokayukta of Karnataka, N Santosh Hegde said, "I defend the death sentence as if it is removed there will be more murders. The judgment is good and re-establishes the faith of the people in the law. It is very easy to say abolish the death sentence, but I strongly feel it should be retained.” While refusing to comment on the Bilkis Banu case, he did regret the delay in hearing of cases. "It is sad that some cases take ages to be heard. Courts are flooded with cases, but the judiciary should track those which may end up in a death sentence and expedite them. If the sessions or trial court grants a death sentence then those cases should be heard out of turn," he suggested.
