Madras High Court rises against Child Rapists, asks Centre to allow castration

A court in southern India has urged the government to institute castration as a punishment for those convicted of raping minors, according to an order published Sunday.

In a strongly-worded court order, the Madras High Court has suggested to the Centre that those guilty of child sex abuse must be castrated.

Welcoming the Madras High Court’s suggestion of considering castration as punishment for child rapists, two social activists on Monday said that the suggestion made to the Centre was apt as the existing Indian law is unable to protect the child from abuses.

“When law is ineffective and incapable of addressing the menace, this Court can not keep its hands folded and remain a silent spectator, unmoved and oblivious of the recent happenings of disgusting blood-curdling gang rapes of children in various parts of India”, said Justice N. Kirubakaran in a recent order.

This suggestion came while Kirubakaran dismissed a petition filed by a British national, accused of sodomising a teenage boy, seeking to quash the proceedings against him in a lower court, reported The Hindu.

The judge also said that countries like Russian Federation, Poland and nine American states have already enforced castration for sex offences against children.

Between 2012 and 2014, the number of these crimes has increased from 38,172 to 89,423. The report also said that it would be unconstitutional and inconsistent with human rights treaties to expose citizens to the potentially unsafe medical side effects of castration without their consent.

The 18-year-old boy alleged that a British national sexually abused him in 2011 after promising his mother that he would take care of his education.

Turning down the Britisher’s plea for quashing the case, the judge, however, stayed the red alert notice issued against him so that he can come to India to appear before the court.