Is tying the knot a way to untangle even grievous cases?

• Two recent Supreme Court decisions have placed domestic stability above the punishment due to a convicted man.
• The SC raises the question whether a convicted man can spare himself years of jail time by doing marriage with his victim or to a member of the victim’s family.

Cases:

• The First Case:
  • In June, the court used its extraordinary power under Article 142 to release a man convicted of attempt to murder because he married his victim’s sister while the case was still pending in the Madras High Court.
  • The parties involved had approached the court to set aside the conviction in order to bring peace and in order to live cordially.
• The Second case:
  • Also from Tamil Nadu, concerned a man who was convicted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for raping his minor niece.
  • He had later married her.
• In both cases, the top court seems to have placed the idea of domestic stability above the punishment due to a convicted man.
• Last year, when the media reported then CJI S.A. Bobde asking the lawyer of a rape accused to find out whether his client would be willing to marry the victim or risk the prospect of going to jail.

Concerns:

• The National Commission for Women has reportedly marked a 30% rise in crime against women in 2021 compared with the 2020 figure, with more than half of them against their life and dignity.
• A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society.
• With laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.

Prelims Takeaway:

• National Commission for Women
• Article 142