In a rare advocacy for harsher punishments akin to some Gulf countries, the Karnataka High Court remarked that people are taking advantage of rights and freedoms under a democratic system exploitatively, and their hands or legs should be chopped.
Justice R Nataraj made these comments while rejecting the bail plea of a 23-year-old man accused of raping his classmate at the Manipal Institute of Technology.
Karnataka High Court judge observed that people are committing heinous crimes very casually, apparently because the perpetrators are not being dealt with strictly under existing laws. This failure has undermined the deterrent effect that laws are meant to have.
“Law has lost its teeth because we don’t deal with offenders firmly. That is why committing an offence has become so easy, unlike in the Middle East. If you chop off a leg or a hand, perhaps only then will people realise to comply with the law. Because we have a democracy, everybody takes it (for granted),” Justice Nataraj said.
