The former Supreme Court Judge Kurian Joseph on 18th March, 2020 has contended that hanging of the four convicts involved in the 2012 gang-rape of Nirbhaya will not be able to bring justice to her parents. He also put forth the contention whether such crimes will actually stop after this hanging.
He also said that society would start forgetting that a person's fate for such grievous crimes is execution as over time, crimes will keep happening but if a person is put behind bars, there are high chances the people will remain haunted by this fact.
"By hanging these people, will such type of crimes stop? In Bachan Singh case, Supreme Court had said that the death penalty can be handed over in rarest of the rare cases, and that too, only when all other options are unquestionably foreclosed," the retired Supreme Court judge put forth.
"I don't think that by hanging the four convicts the parents of Nirbhaya will get justice. I have all sympathies definitely for the parents of the victim. I really feel sorry," retired Justice Joseph said.
"Gandhi Ji had said that an eye for eye will only make the world blind. So in criminal justice procedure, there is nothing called vengeance. If I take your life that means you will take mine. This is not justice. Vengeance and retribution are two different concepts altogether," he added.
He thinks the entire motive of a punishment is retribution, restitution and reformation
"According to me even if the court has left out considering any of these aspects at the time of the considering the mercy petition, the president and the government also have a duty to take into account some of these aspects," he said.
The three convicts are expected to be hanged tomorrow, that is, March 20, 2020.
Author - Dyuti Pandya
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