No reform possible if condemned for life: Legal experts

NEW DELHI: In their zeal to shame sexual offenders and identify them so that people become vigilant, Delhi Police has also uploaded cases in which charges were not proved and the accused was acquitted after being convicted for some other offence like kidnapping.
While the police claim the move to make public the details of sexual offenders will help them track down habitual offenders, legal experts feel it challenges the constitutional right to life with dignity of a person and also the reformatory approach of the criminal justice system.
The criminal justice system aims at reforming the convicts in jail and later letting them re-connect with the mainstream. However, putting in public domain the details of a person who has already undergone imprisonment for an offence is “retrogressive”, claim legal experts.
Justice S N Dhingra, former judge of Delhi high court, called the step “preposterous”. “Publishing the details of a convict on the internet is a bad idea. After undergoing imprisonment, he may have improved. Raking up his past will not help. This is character assassination,” he said.
He underlined the pitfalls of such an approach, pointing out that many of the sexual offences reported are not true. “If there is a sexual relationship between a girl of 16 years and a boy of 18, under the law it’s rape as the girl is a minor. In such cases, parents force the girl to file a rape case and the boy gets convicted. How can he be a sexual offender,” he asked.
Lawyers say the move can be challenged in court and compensation sought by the aggrieved. “It affects the reputation and right to life with dignity of a person. One can seek a direction from the court to remove the names,” said senior advocate KTS Tulsi.
He criticized the police action saying it will bring a lifelong stigma and prevent rehabilitation of the convict. “You are creating a greater sense of insecurity among such people and making sure that if they are in a job, they are thrown out and they return to their criminal behaviour. It is retrogressive,” said Tulsi, saying this can hardly be called policing.
While the inclusion of acquitted persons has been slammed by the lawyers unanimously, there is also a dissenting view. Lawyer Ashok Arora believes that publishing the picture of the convicts is permissible under the law and “shame the name” should be the policy. Lawyer Meenakshi Lekhi, however, says a better way is to put the data online within the police network and not make it available for public consumption. “Such an act is in direct conflict with the right to life of a person and can be struck down because of Article 21 of the Constitution,” she said.
Minor alleges rape
A Class XII student has alleged that she was raped by a neighbour promising marriage in Ghazipur area of east Delhi. The 17-year-old told police that the accused had befriended her a year ago and developed physical relations with her. He took her to Goa and other cities. She tried to contact him recently but he was evasive and refused to marry her. The victim later found that he was already married. She informed her parents, who approached the police. A case of rape has been registered. The accused is yet to be arrested.