Crime Against Women: Courts Act Tough In 2013

The case saw charges being framed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act which was brought in force in November last year.

The December 16 gangrape case led to amendment to the Indian Penal Code with stricter laws against rape with death penalty if the victim dies or is left in a vegetative state.

Routine 'misdemeanour' like eve-teasing, stalking and voyeurism also came to be expressly defined as non-bailable offences.

At the beginning of the last quarter of 2013, the court sentenced the convicts in the December 16 case to death while admonishing the gravity of the incident and "hair-raising beastly and unparallelled behaviour".

Amid protests for convictions in rape cases, there was a rise in false complaints of rape and sexual offences and courts noted that judiciary cannot be swayed by public outcry.

While the debate on rape cases and false complaints was on, a judge's remark that "girls are morally and socially bound not to indulge in sexual relation before proper marriage and if they do so, it would be to their peril and they cannot be heard crying later that it was rape" created controversy.

The December 16 case was not the only rape case in which death penalty was awarded to the culprits.

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