Repeat rape: Bombay HC upholds death penalty clause

In a judgment that spells no-tolerance to rape, the Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the constitutional validity of section 376(E) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The section states that a repeat rape offender should be imprisoned for the rest of his life or sentenced to death, the Indian Express reported.

A division bench of Justices BP Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite Dere upheld the validity of the section while dismissing petitions filed by three convicts in the Shakti Mill gang-rape case.

The three were sentenced to death in 2014. The stringent provision was added by an amendment made by Parliament in 2013, following the Nirbhaya gang-rape incident. “We are of the opinion that section 376 (E) of the IPC is not ultra vires to the Constitution and hence need not be quashed in the present case,” the court said.

The petition was filed by the three convicts,  Vijay Jadhav, Mohammed Kasim Bengali, and Mohammed Salim Ansari, all sentenced to death by a sessions court in 2014 for the gang-rape of a city-based photojournalist on August 22, 2013.

Reports said the three were convicted for raping a call centre employee the same year. Both instances of gang-rape had taken place in 2013 in the Shakti Mills compound.