This ‘judicial farce’ must stop

This ‘judicial farce’ must stop

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 12:38 AM IST
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In this lawless Indian society, there are elements which take ‘forgiveness’ to unacceptable levels, which must be stopped. ‘Fair is Foul, foul is fair’, commented a character in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. In his 30 plus plays, the Bard was quite liberal with quotes which stood the test of time, passing into history, college text books, budget speeches and even court judgements. These reflected a variety of sentiments, mainly the quality of ‘mercy’.  Present events do not reflect this sentiment but there is a feeling which has crept into our society that justice should be tempered with mercy.

The latest to come out with a ponderous quote on the issue, Justice P.Devadoss of the Madras High Court, now appears to overflow with the quality of mercy. Last week, the Honourable judge set off a fierce controversy by permitting the victim to negotiate with her tormentor. Earlier in another rape case, the same judge had set free a rape convict after the victim made a submission that she was now happily married to her rapist-husband. Such cases do not get reported in detail in the metro dailies. Indian cinema is full of such melodrama-driven happy ending scenes where within the space of 10 minutes, the all-conquering hero catches the nefarious villain, who had been a thorn in the flesh of the hero and heroine, beats him to pulp before being interrupted by some biddies who urge him to forget and forgive. The cops arrive after all the fun gets over and take him to jail. In other heroine-centred films, the heroine (a dalit or low-caste girl) could be persuaded to forgive the villain who tried to loot her izzat (honour) and everything gets sorted. He gets thrashed soundly and is then graciously forgiven by the ladies brigade.

This mood for forgiveness seems to be all-pervading. When a woman was molested or raped, there was a justifiable hue and cry and call for badla (revenge). But in the social films till around ten years back, we had good Samaritans who did not regard rape victims as a ‘lost cause’. If the rapist was young, genuinely repentant and prepared to atone for his crime by marrying the victim who had by now shed gallons of tears, then who were we to say ‘no’ to such a union. Sometimes, the villains were local nefarious thugs but considering the poor little victim left astray with a baggage in her hand, there were scenes of reforming the rapist with a little more vigour, using lathis, and pictures of jail appearing on the screen. Invariably, the evil bowed out and that too if the Judge delivered a moral lecture and the witch-like mother in law was shown to be prepared to repent.

As long as these cock and bull stories were confined onto the screen, we had no objections. But even as instances of rape cases went up along with all kinds of perversions and torture forced on the victims, attitudes began to change. Along with the demand for stricter and swifter punishment, there were accompanying pleas from the liberals for humane considerations for the rapists, rape trials which went on and on, endless editorializing on the social issues of the cases, and the age of the convict- if he was a minor- and yet had proved to be the most vicious criminal in the group. Though young in age, the minor criminal was fully aware of what was going on and kept egging the fellow criminals for further rounds of bestiality on young innocent girls, including minors. In the Delhi gang rape case, there was enough evidence that the worst perpetrator was the youngest criminal whose ‘minority status’ could not be ignored while the sentence was pronounced. The common man and a spectator at the trial could only walk out of the court room muttering ‘The Law is an Ass’.

Some other statements and judgments defied common logic. The convicted rapist suddenly developed a conscience. He suddenly remembered that he was the sole earning member of the family and he wondered aloud about what would happen to his darling daughter while he remained in jail for long. Where were such thoughts when he was ravishing the young victim? Such pleas for mercy were meaningless and had to be discarded without a second thought. But ironically, some of the judges too suddenly developed a conscience.

Some of the judges never learn from their experiences. A convicted rapist serving a ten year term for rape in Tamil Nadu (Villupuram), while out on bail, expressed regret for his crime and married her. The couple also had a baby girl. While the man filed an appeal in the Madras High Court against his conviction, his wife filed an intervening petition informing the court about her marriage and the changed marital status. The girl explained her family’s circumstances and various responsibilities and urged for a reduction in her husband’s prison term. Judge Devadoss found merit in the argument, stressing that such a term was not the hallmark or end of justice but instead, needed to be tempered with justice. Taking into consideration the time spent by the accused in jail, the judge observed that justice would be delivered when the man was released, by adjusting his unspent prison term with the period he was inside the prison for the crime.

What remains unanswered is who was wrong or rather who was right and whether justice, in its true form, was delivered or not. The rapist was no doubt punished but only till his victim, now his wife, wanted him to be. She felt that the sentence served by him was sufficient and that he was now a totally reformed man. Perhaps, Shakespeare did have a point when he titled one of his comedies as ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’.

V Gangadhar

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