Opinion | Is The Law Scary Enough? Deterrence, Death Penalty And Sexual- Offence Prosecutions

Updated: Oct 13, 2026 16:44 pm IST Published On Oct 13, 2026 16:44 pm IST Last Updated On Oct 13, 2026 16:44 pm IST

Published On Oct 13, 2026 16:44 pm IST

Last Updated On Oct 13, 2026 16:44 pm IST

In 2011, a serving member of the disciplined forces was accused of raping a minor, the young daughter of an officer. Fifteen years later, he is out on bail. Nothing in the evidence set him free. The delay did, in the courtroom and in the department's own proceedings, as the case moved from one adjournment to the next while the family waited.

I think about that case whenever the country asks, after another horrifying crime, whether our laws are harsh enough. They are. What that case showed me is a different kind of failure: the law was severe, but it was not prompt.

A spate of cases, and the Supreme Court's question

The question is pressing this month. On September 28, 2026, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of a spate of sexual-assault cases in Delhi-NCR, including the alleged gangrape and murder of a teenage girl in Swarup Nagar and the alleged sexual assault of a minor on a sleeper bus. Together, the Bench said, they "starkly underline a systemic failure" of law enforcement and civil administration to guarantee basic public safety. It ordered a vulnerability audit of public spaces and held that safety in public places is part of the right to live with dignity under Article 21.

When the matter returned on 5 October, the Bench gave the Delhi Police and the Union Home Ministry four weeks to respond. It said the priority is to prevent crime rather than act after it, and it asked why there was no dedicated "war room" to monitor and respond to incidents. These are allegations, and the trials are yet to come. But the pattern is familiar: a crime, an outcry, and then a debate about punishment. The Court is asking an earlier question, which is what stops the next one.

A statute book that is hardly lenient

Section 64 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) prescribes a minimum of ten years' rigorous imprisonment for rape. In aggravated cases, such as rape by a police officer, public servant, guardian, teacher, or relative, it can extend to imprisonment for the rest of the offender's natural life. Section 65 prescribes at least twenty years where the victim is under sixteen, and life imprisonment or death where she is under twelve. Section 66 allows death where the victim dies or is left in a persistent vegetative state. The POCSO Act, 2012, is just as firm: Section 6 permits life imprisonment or death for aggravated penetrative sexual assault.

So the law is not lenient. The real question is whether that severity on........

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