Govt has dropped several suggestions of the Verma panel.
With women groups and individuals raising their voice against the ordinance to fight sexual crime against women passed by the cabinet on Friday, one of the key member of the government-appointed committee, Justice (retd) Leila Seth said the panel has decided not to comment on government’s ordinance.
“We have done our hard work for the nation, let the people of India decide as to what is right and what is wrong,” Seth told DNA. She said the committee has decided not to comment on the government’s ordinance as a matter of protest.
“Our whole team has worked very hard in preparing this report. We all worked as a citizen of this country for its welfare. Let the government decide which path it wanted to take,” Seth added.
Sources close to another committee member Gopal Subramaniam said there was a unanimous decision by the committee members not to comment anything on the government ordinance as they were upset with it.
“A section like marital rape has been dropped from the ordinance, which is so much a necessity keeping in mind the adverse effects it has,” said a team associate of the panel.
“The exemption for marital rape stems from a long out dated notion of marriage which regarded wives as no more than the property of their husbands. Marriage in modern times should be regarded as a partnership of equals and no longer one in which the wife must be the subservient chattel of the husband,” the panel suggested in its 630 page report.
At present, marital rape is viewed as an exception to the offence of rape in the IPC. Section 375 of the Code, which describes rape as an offence, excludes “sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the offence — provided that the wife is not under 15 years of age”.
“A rapist remains a rapist regardless of his relationship with the victim. It is also important that the legal prohibition on marital rape is accompanied by changes in the attitudes of prosecutors, police officers and those in society more generally,” the report reads stating the prevalent provisions throughout the world.
The Justice Verma commission is against death penalty in rape cases and recommends a maximum punishment of life in jail. But the government has favoured capital punishment in rare cases.
The ordinance will come into effect as soon as the president signs it. Parliament has to pass it within six months.
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