Amidst the national outrage over the rapes of innocent souls, Union Cabinet approved an ordinance for allowing courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age by amending the existing law on Saturday.
As the Parliament is currently not in session, the government will bring an amendment to the existing punishment for "aggravated assault" under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, from life in jail to death sentence.
The criminal law amendment ordinance cleared by the cabinet seeks to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to introduce a new provision to sentence convicts.
True to what the government had earlier told the Supreme Court
about actively considering amending the penal law to introduce the death penalty to those convicted of sexually abusing children up to 12 years of age, the ordinance has now been passed for further procedure.
On Friday, a senior official in the ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) told Hindustan Times, "Because the Parliament is not in session and considering the urgency of the situation, we have decided to bring an ordinance to implement the changes in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012."
The POCSO act, introduced in 2012 prescribes life imprisonment as the maximum punishment for aggravated sexual assault on minors. Although, the Indian Penal Code does allow the death penalty for gang rape. Along with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana governments have approved proposals seeking the death penalty for child rapists.
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