Madras HC recommends castration for child rapists, says it will lead to 'magical' results

In a strongly-worded order, the Madras High Court has called for a consideration of the castration of people convicted for child sex abuse, according to reports. The court’s remarks came in response to a plea filed by a British national accused of pedophilia for quashing of the charges against him, as per a report in The Times of India. The court said that the punishment of castration for child rapists would lead to ‘magical results’, according to the Times of India report. Justice N Kirubakaran, who passed the order, pointed out that the punishment is in force in several countries, including the US, as stated in the report. [caption id=“attachment_2482422” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Madras HC. Image courtesy: ibnlive[/caption] The judge remarked that the court ‘cannot remain a silent spectator’ on the issue of rapes of children in the country, as per a report in The Hindu. The court also said that activists should exhibit sympathy for the victims of such crimes instead of having ‘misplaced sympathy’ for the perpetrators. Even as the court made these remarks, it noted that the conviction rate in sexual offences against children is merely two percent, as per the report in The Times of India. This is not the first time that a call for considering the option of castration has been made by a court. In 2011, a Delhi judge had suggested chemical castration as punishment for rape. The judge had suggested the measure as an alternative sentence to imprisonment, according to a report in The Times of India. The court had then said that there should be a ‘full public debate’ on the issue. However, in 2013, the Justice Verma committee had rejected the demand for castration as a punishment for rape, as reported by IBNLive. The committee had noted that the punishment ‘fails to treat the social foundations of rape’, saying that the act is about ‘power and sexually deviant behaviour’. The report also said that it would be unconstitutional and inconsistent with human rights treaties to expose citizens to the potentially dangerous medical side effects of castration without their consent.