Rapists Convicted Under POCSO Act Should Not Have Right To File Mercy Pleas: President Kovind
Amid the growing demand for making rape irrespective of the age of the victim a crime punishable with the death penalty, President Ram Nath Kovind has added a new twist.Addressing the National Convention on Empowerment of Women for Social Transformation in Sirohi, Rajasthan, President Kovind said child rapists should not have the right to file mercy petitions.?
"Women safety is a serious issue. The attacks happening on daughters have shaken the soul of the country. Rape convicts under the POCSO Act should not have the right to file mercy petition. They do not need any such rights. This is an issue which needs to be discussed by the Parliament" he said.?
As per Article 72 of the Constitution, the President has the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishments including the death penalty, something that has often been used as the last resort by death row convicts.?
The comment came on the same day the Union Home Ministry sent the recommendation rejecting the mercy plea of Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case to the President.The Delhi government had earlier submitted its recommendation to the Home Ministry for the same.?
Earlier this week, following the gang rape and murder of the 27-year-old veterinary doctor in Hyderabad the union government, had hinted at amending the laws to execute death penalties in rape cases.Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy had said that the Centre is considering a suggestion that the conviction in such cases by trial courts may be challenged only in the Supreme Court.?
He said that the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) will be amended for this. "Currently the convicts go for appeals in various upper courts and high courts, resulting in long delays in awarding punishment," Kishan Reddy said. As the cases are anyway going to the apex court, we thought the role of the High Courts can be dispensed with," the minister added.?
Under the newly amended POCSO Act, aggravated sexual assault on children up to the age of 12 is a crime punishable by death.In 2018, following the rape and murder of a minor girl, Madhya Pradesh had become the first state to change the laws to the award death penalty to rapists, this was followed up by several other states and earlier this year the parliament had passed the POCSO Act for the same.
