Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday canceled a 10-year sentence given to a man because he raped a woman managed and then married, said that the sentence would make their children unauthorized.
The court said such a sentence was represented not law enforcement but “miscarriage of justice”.
The man, from Banskantha, was demanded based on the Pocso law for allegedly raping his young wife.
HC said the man and his wife received their child as their own, so imprisoning him made the child unauthorized.
The wife and son lived with the man’s family when he was in prison.
The couple had married in 2015 and the man was then slapped on charges of rape and kidnapping under the provisions of IPC and ACT Pocso.
This was because the woman was under 18 at the time.
Then, the couple is married and has children.
The man was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court in Desesa in March.
When the man’s guarantee application was heard, justice Paresh Upadhyay questioned whether the sentence was because rape was accused or child.
He said there were many marriages involving underage women.
“But in such a situation because of the law, we have made the child unauthorized.
What is the consequences?” Court said.
Judges considered a statement of women into court accountability on strict legal effects, prosecutors said that the High Court had sent recommendations to the Indian Law Commission.
The prosecutor observed that the recommendations said that the law applies before 2013, before the NIRBHAYA case, right ‘because the judicial officer is given with the discretion to provide the right sentence, even less than the minimum sentence.
But now, the minimum sentence that must be given is 10 years in such cases, the prosecutor said.
The judges decided to hear the man’s appeal to his beliefs and punishment.
The judges started with the question, “How can this belief can be sustainable? Can I close my eyes? We have made the child unauthorized …
Many children become invalid in this way.” The court considered the statement of the woman, who had told the court court that he has established relationships with men voluntarily.
The court further said, “Judicial recognition can be taken from the fact that there are a large number of marriages that occur in Gujarat where girls may not reach the age of prescribed under the law …”.
Courts added: “Here parents have accepted that it is their child, but reduced to an invalid child.
This is not law enforcement, but a miscarriage of justice.” (The identity of the victim has not been revealed to protect his privacy in accordance with the charges of the Supreme Court about the Cases Related to sexual violence)