SC to examine convict’s plea on validity of child gangrape law

Subject: Economy

Section: Monetary Policy

Context:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine the validity of a law which sends a guilty man either to a lifetime in prison or to the gallows for gangraping a child under 12 years without affording him a chance to atone for his crime or reform.
Section 376DB (gangrape of a child under 12 years of age) of the Indian Penal Code restricted the trial judge’s options to either a sentence for “the remainder of the person’s natural life” or death penalty. Life imprisonment is the “minimum, mandatory” punishment under the provision.
The minimum punishment prescribed under Section 376AB (rape of a child under 12 years of age) was 20 years of imprisonment.
The petition argued that Section 376DB violated Articles 21 (right to life) and 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
S. Supreme Court had held that in extreme cases, a disproportionate sentence violated the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, of the U.S. Constitution.