oppn parties Women Criminals: No Justification to Show Leniency

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  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
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  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
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  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Women Criminals: No Justification to Show Leniency

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2017-04-27 19:03:30

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack
The Supreme Court has observed that leniency can be shown to women criminals under certain circumstances. But this goes against the very basis of law which decrees that all citizens, regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender and economic status are equal before law and all should be punished in a similar manner. There should not be – in fact cannot be – any discrimination in meting out punishment to a woman just because of her gender. If a woman commits a crime, she should be handed out the same punishment that would have been given to a man in similar circumstances. Extenuating circumstances cannot be cited to grant relief to a women criminal.

The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, Indian laws do not have separate punishment for males and females. Also, courts do not have much of discretion in awarding punishment, apart from what is written in law. So for courts to discriminate in favour of women criminals would be judicial overreach. Secondly, if a woman is to be shown leniency in case she has young children to look after, cannot the same logic be applied for a male offender to say that he is the sole earning member of the family? If the court is concerned about what will happen to the children if their mother is sent away to jail, it should also be worried how the mother will feed the children if the husband, who provides for the family, is sent to jail.

There can be mitigating circumstances in many cases and judges mostly apply their discretion in showing leniency depending upon the facts of the case. But to make it gender-specific is wrong. Women criminals are in no way different or softer than men criminals. With more and more women getting drawn towards the criminal way of life, either independently or lured by their male acquaintances, there is no need to make them believe that they will be treated with kid gloves by the law. It will embolden them and attract newer recruits. Hence, the law must be applied equitably and justly for both the genders. There should not be any exceptions on just the basis of gender.

image credit: blush.me

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