Death penalty for child rape may not mean better justice, data shows

About 90 per cent of child rape cases were pending trial in India in 2016, no more than 28 per cent of such cases ended in conviction, and there is a 20-year backlog in bringing cases to trial, the latest available national crime data show.

These data indicate the government move to prioritise a change to legislation that allows courts to grant the death penalty will not bring quicker or better justice because there is no plan to address conviction failures and court delays.

No more than 28 per cent of child rapes registered end in convictions, and there is a 20-year backlog of child-sex-abuse related court cases, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), but the government has decided to add further legislation, permitting courts to grant the death penalty to those convicted of raping children below 12 years of age.

The new ordinance also adds a minimum punishment of 20 years to anyone who rapes a woman below 16.

Kathua rape trial: Accused ready for narco test; next hearing on April 28

The Kathua rape and murder case trial, which began in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, will see its next hearing on April 28. The case is related to eight people allegedly holding an eight-year-old girl captive in a small village temple in the state's Kathua district for a week in January this year, sexually assaulting her, and then murdering her. The accused were ready to undergo narco tests, said their counsel. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will at 2 pm today hear the plea of the father of the Kathua rape victim to transfer the trial to Chandigarh. The Kathua rape case trials began a day after protests were staged in various parts of the country by citizens outraged by the heinous crime.

The accused in the Kathua case include a juvenile, against whom a separate charge sheet was filed. The juveline and the other accused will be facing separate trials. While seven of the accused perpetrators will be tried in the sessions court, the chief judicial magistrate of Kathua will hold the trial for the juvenile. The accused include four police officers and a retired government official.

After the Jammu Bar association and the Kathua Bar received a rap on the kuckles by the Supreme Court on April 13, as the apex court took a strong note of certain lawyers obstructing the judicial process in the case, the Kathua trial is expected to be conducted smoothly. However, the Supreme Court's actions in the matter and the Indian civil society's demand for justice in the Kathua case have not eased the challenges faced by the lawyer of the victim's family. The Kathua rape victim's lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat on Sunday said that she feared for her life as she might get raped or murdered. She added that she had been called anti-Hindu and boycotted socially.