Supreme Court Urges Centre To Impose Harsher Punishment On Acid Attack Perpetrators
· Free Press Journal
The unending trauma of victims of acid attacks should provoke the conscience of the entire country, but this atrocity remains on the fringes of social discussion because of low media visibility. It is welcome, therefore, that the Supreme Court has taken up the matter again and asked the Union government to explore stronger punishments for perpetrators. For victims, it has asked for enhanced compensation and relief under the disabilities law and advocated a stricter regime of acid sales.
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Such is the impact of acid throwing that nothing could adequately do justice to victims. Shaheen Malik, who suffered a disfiguring acid attack, took the commendable decision to approach the court.
In a case similar to hers, Justices S. R. Bhannurmath and Subhash B. Adi on a Karnataka High Court bench said two decades ago that an acid attack victim may die due to severe burns or septicaemia. If she survives, she is left grotesquely disfigured, with mangled flesh and a hideous zombie-like appearance and often blinded, a fate worse than death.
Concerns raised over easy availability of acid
It is shocking that each year, about 200 people, mainly women, are targeted with acid. The punishment of a minimum of five years and a maximum of seven years under the IPC did not deter attackers, and Section 124 (1) of the BNS has raised the sentence to 10 years, going up to life in prison; an attempted attack attracts five to seven years in prison with a fine.
While deterrent punishment may have a salutary effect, it is imperative to make it impossible to buy acids easily. That they are sold without even identification exposes the hollow implementation of poison control rules. In this context, Chief Justice Surya Kant’s suggestion to make the acid seller vicariously liable for the crime must be considered seriously.
Court equates acid with guns due to devastating impact
Given the dastardly nature of the act and the lifelong consequences for the victim, the Supreme Court has correctly equated acids with guns, the only difference being that the corrosive liquid is available for a paltry sum. The informality of transactions in small industries and the police failure to monitor sales of hazardous substances make the problem worse.
Shaheen Malik told the SC that acid is freely available in Delhi, indicating a total lack of governance. The Karnataka High Court took the laudable stand that deterrence speaks louder than reformation in some crimes and sentenced the perpetrator of an acid attack to life imprisonment on the charge of attempted murder.
Call for stricter laws and stronger rehabilitation measures
All acid attacks should be viewed as an attempt to murder. Stringent punishment to sellers is warranted. It is also necessary to ban the sale of cleaning acids in grocery stores, since some attacks involve forced ingestion of the liquid in domestic disputes, leading to permanent, often fatal, internal injury. The Union government must amend the law to curb acid sales and provide exemplary compensation and rehabilitation assistance to victims.