On 20th June 2025 two major verdicts were passed in two different corners of our country. One in southern tip of Kerala and the other in the Eastern tip of West Bengal.
The one from West Bengal was a much awaited one. This is a case of a doctor being raped and murdered in a hospital. This case had generated large scale national outrage, politicized to some extent and some weird suspected foul play by the state government which was well publicized. Notwithstanding that, the Chief Minister of the state made a big show of marching on the street with protestors and generally going around promising sun, moon and stars as justice for the family. The crime was heinous, Barkha Dutt a journalist of much repute summarizes it “the doctor at RG Kar hospital was killed from smothering and manual strangulation, her body had 16 external injuries - abrasions on the cheeks, lips, nose, neck, arms and knees - and 9 internal injuries, including to her private parts”.
The national outrage, sustained protests by the doctors, the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) taking over the case, the multiple political proclamation and speedy trial, all of it reassured the general public that ‘capital punishment’ will be hundred percent awarded. To everybody’s dismay the court declared that this was not a ’rarest of rare’ case and awarded ‘life imprisonment till the end of natural life’ as punishment.
On the very same day and perhaps at about the same time another verdict was being passed in Kerala. This was a young woman about 24years old who had murdered her boyfriend by giving him a ayurvedic concoction mixed with a lethal herbicide. The motive of the murder was to eliminate the boyfriend after he refused to step back even after the young woman’s marriage was fixed with somebody else. The woman had made a failed attempt to kill him a month earlier which was the clinching point to award her ‘capital punishment’ by the Hon’ble Court. This conviction has the distinction of being the youngest woman to be awarded with capital punishment in Kerala. The judge in his judgement stated that the criminal mindset beyond reformation that the woman displayed makes it a deserving case for this quantum of punishment.
Now the question that comes to my mind is what is ‘rarest of rare case’? How did the first case not qualify to be rare especially considering the fact that it was a busy hospital and the young doctor was resting in a vacant conference hall. The brutality of the murder and the horrifying injuries on her private parts shook the conscience of the nation. Doesn’t this deserve the most stringent punishment that any court can award especially in a context of gender justice? For 75 years the society and the Government has struggled to ensure equitable access to opportunities for women. Women in medicine or any other professional space has come after years of sustained efforts to reduce gender discrimination. And in such a scenario if a woman that too a doctor is raped and murdered in her work place what is the impact of it on millions of parents who will now think twice to send their daughters to work? Shouldn’t the corridors of justice also consider the cascading message that a judgement sends to perpetrators and potential perpetrators?
I am not in any way saying that the second case did not deserve a stringent punishment. The appalling criminal mindset of the woman to invite the young man to her house promising sexual intimacy and ruthlessly poisoning him which led to his death 11 days later deserves the most stringent punishment. Combined with the fact that she had made a previous attempt a month back only shows that she is a hard core criminal. But would this be a ‘rarest of rare’ case I have my own doubts. A very interesting outcome of this judgement has been a strong lobby now demanding for a ‘Commission for Men’ on the lines of ‘Women’s Commission’ to address the grievances of men who are subjected to violence by women. That is separate matter altogether but suffice to say every judgement has a social impact which goes a long way in changing the mindset of the community regarding crime and punishment.
It is high time in my opinion, for the legal luminaries to really apply their mind on what would constitute ‘rarest of rare’. Of course how one can even imagine a rarest case is beyond me but at least some clear parameters could be laid down taking into consideration the larger impact on the society and the message the judgement should convey.
While I am not somebody who believes in ‘eye for an eye’ but I definitely believe that a heinous crime deserves a commensurate punishment that the legal framework provides. I also believe that a cancerous growth has to be removed whether it is in the body or in the society, there is only that much that can be achieved by curative means.
