The issue arose after additional sessions judge at Delhi's Rohini Court Kamini Lau suggested castration as an alternative punishment for rapists while hearing the case against a man who had raped his 15-year-old stepdaughter for over four years.
Supreme Court advocate Meenakshi Lekhi felt a little differently.
"To call castration medieval is not justified considering what the child victims of rape and molestation go through. The law is for the protection of the victim after all,"said Lekhi, who was earlier with the National Commission for Women.
"Castration as a punishment for rape really needs to be thought over. Not because it is cruel or takes us back to the medieval times, but because the judiciary is trying to point out that something stringent really needs to come up for a crime like rape," Lekhi told IANS.
"I don't support castration at all. It's barbaric, and takes us back to medieval times. Rather, we should make an effort to improve the implementation of existing laws," Centre for Social Research Director Ranjana Kumari said.
dear viewer, here is my personal view. castration as a punishment of rape sounds like cancellation of driving license of the accused of road accident for lifetime.it is not only barbaric but also against human right. there is a punishment for rape of 7 years or over for rape. i think this punishment is more human than castration.
castration is also violative of art. 21. by castration you are taking away the right to enjoy s*x which is a very natural need of a human being to live a life. there is no guarantee that castrated rapist will not turn into a good citizen in future.
castration for rape is like eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth kind of barbaric thing. so it is not reformative, it is retributive. it does not eliminate the root cause of rape.
