Madras High Court: Adopting a stern approach towards increasing cases of child abuse and incidents of rape of minors, N. Kirubakaran, J., directed the Central Government to consider the punishment of castrating child abusers so as to instill fear in the minds of the perpetrators of such heinous crime. The Court observed that the reason for such a severe direction is due to the failure of POSCO Act and the Juvenile Justice Act in curbing the horrendous offences against minors and toddlers. Unruffled by the future consequences of the direction to castrate child abusers, the Court came down heavily upon the “human rights activists” for advocating rights of the offenders in such crimes, instead of standing by the victims whose lives are left completely shattered after they have been abused sexually.
In the present case the Court took notice of the sexual exploitation of a boy by the petitioner, who was termed by the Court as the “Foreign Monster”, however the Court also stated various incidents of sexual abuse of children prevalent throughout the country including the recent gang rape of toddlers in Delhi.
In harsh words the Court denounced the gross acts of exploitation committed by “monsters” stating that, when laws fail, the Courts cannot remain a mute spectator on the crimes committed on helpless kids. Therefore, the Court issued the following directions along with introduction of castration as punishment for child abusers. The Directions are as follows-
- The Government to consider constitution of a commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and with experts in various fields to undertake an extensive research about physical child abuse
- The Government to take a decision on introducing free and compulsory Sex Education at High School level and conduct programmes to create awareness about child sexual abuse.
- Taking a leaf out of U.K Visa Rules, the Government is to contemplate upon introduction of a new column in Indian Visa forms issued to foreign nationals to give the details of their pending cases and cases of conviction
- Foreign Nationals are not to be allowed to open any shelter homes or orphanages unless their antecedents are verified from their respective nations and Interpol.
The Court also suggested the Government to consider “introduction prohibition” as per the policy directive in Article 47 of the Constitution, as liquor consumption is one of the major reasons behind increasing numbers of child sexual abuse. [XX v. State, 2015 SCC OnLine Mad 9441, decided on 16-10-2015]
