Supreme Court of India says victim’s age is not complete criteria for death in rape

The Supreme Court said that the young age of victims in rape and murder cases cannot be a complete  ground to impose death penalty on the convict and commuted the death sentence of a man, convicted for rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl, to life imprisonment.

A Bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao referred to the top court’s verdict in another case in which it had surveyed 67 judgments of the Supreme Court in the past 40 years in which death sentence was imposed by the trial court or the High Court for offences under Sections 376 (rape) and 302 (murder), and where the age of victims was below 16 years.

The top court Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, said that “out of these 67 cases, this Court affirmed the award of death sentence to the accused in 15 cases.

“Out of the remaining 12 cases, in two cases the death sentence was confirmed by this Court and the review petitions were dismissed. 

The top court's crucial observation came on an appeal of Irappa Siddappa who was convicted and given the death penalty by a trial court. The Karnataka High Court confirmed the trial court's decision on March 6, 2017.

He was convicted for kidnapping, rape and murder of a five-year old-girl in the village of Khanapur in Karnataka in 2010 and post the incident, he had put the body of the victim in a bag and thrown it into a stream, named Bennihalla.

"We find sufficient mitigating factors to commute the sentence of death imposed by the Sessions Court and confirmed by the High Court into imprisonment for life, with the direction that the appellant shall not be entitled to premature release/remission for the offence under Section 302 (murder) of the Code until he has undergone actual imprisonment for at least thirty years,” said the verdict penned by Justice Khanna for the bench.

The top court extensively dealt with arguments based on minor age of the victims in rape-and-murder cases and referred to the apex court's judgement in the Shatrughna Baban Meshram case in which 67 judgments of the Supreme Court in the previous 40 years were surveyed.

Apex court also directed that the sentences shall run concurrently and not consecutively.