Why India isn’t “GREAT”? || Nirbhaya Verdict vs Indian Law
I know after reading the title, you must be vexed with me. But trust me, by the end of the article I will prove that the title is worth a discussion. Before jumping in the depth of the discussion, I would ask a simple question to everyone reading this article, Do you still follow the rules made by your grandfather for your family who passed 20 years ago? Do you still live by the thinking and ideology of people of the 70s or 80s? I hope not.
Now, discussing the same in the context of whole India as a country. We follow the Indian Penal Code (IPC) rules for giving punishment to criminals. Indian Penal Code (IPC) was established in 1833 and it came into force in the British Raj, 1862. After that, numerous amendments were made. Indian Constitution was formed in 1950. We are bound to follow the ideologies of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. You must be wondering by now, why I am telling you all this.
I’ll explain my point through an incident that happened in 2012, “The Nirbhaya Case”. Now some of you might know where I am heading. It is already 2020, and where are the accused of the heinous crime? They are still alive. They are not just alive, they are playing with our system. I’ll tell you how.
Indian Supreme Court has given some rights to the accused of a case. The three important rights given as a tool to challenge the judgement are: Review petition, Curative petition, Mercy Petition.
All the legal proceedings of the Nirbhaya case were completed by May 2017. None of the rights were used by any of the four accused in two years. Even Tihar jail and the Delhi government did not ask the accused lawyers to use the petitions. The verdict came by the Patiala court on 7th Jan, 2020 that all the accused will be hung on 22nd January, 2020. On 21st January, one of the accused filed a mercy petition. This couldn’t be ignored. Now, as per the rulings of the Supreme Court, after the mercy petition is rejected by the President, a cushion of 14 days will be given to the accused. Still the mercy petitions of 3 other accused are left to be rejected and none of them has asked for it since they know that hanging cannot be done separately. Supreme court rulings say that if a case has say, four accused, then all the four should be hung together since they have committed the same crime.
Don’t you think that these leverages are making the criminals play with our system? The Supreme Court’s ruling says that the President has to mention the reason for rejecting the mercy petition. This will now benefit the accused as they have a right to challenge the reason in the high court or the supreme court.I mean really?? They are purchasing their lives. Isn’t this absurd to challenge our President’s decisions? If all the petitions and reviews are exhausted, even then the accused will be given a window of 14 days to finish all their unfinished work and prepare their minds for the final day. Are you serious?
Bringing the icing to the cake, in the era of technology, all these petitions should be signed by hand and should be sent in the form of letters as done during the British Raj. This is surely a slow process.
Japan has advanced as though they are in 2040 and we are still are tangled and struggling in the old and spineless rules. As none of us follow our grandfather’s rules now, so it is high time that we adapt ourselves to the current times and change all these stringent rules which help criminals play with our system. I am not saying we need to demolish the system but er need to make important and required changes in the constitution & IPC. As per my theory after counting all benefits given by the constitution & the law, Nirbhaya criminals will be hung between 15 to 25 march only. India isn’t ‘MAHAAN’ but “Banana bhi humko hi padega!”
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