Supreme Court Expresses Shock At Trial Court In Gujarat Imposing Only 3 Years Sentence For Rape

The Supreme Court recently expressed its surprise at noting that a trial court awarded only a punishment of three years imprisonment for the offence of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, although the minimum punishment prescribed for the offence was seven years imprisonment (before the 2013 amendment).

The Court was also aghast to note that the Gujarat High Court did not take notice of this fact while rejecting the convict's appeal against the conviction and the State's appeal to enhance the sentence.

Although the High Court was conscious of the error made by the trial court, it did not do anything to remedy it, the Supreme Court said.

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan observed :

"We fail to understand how trial court could have imposed sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment for the offence of rape punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860... 

Even the High Court while dismissing the criminal appeal filed by the appellants herein did not take notice of the fact that how could the trial court have imposed sentence of three years for the offence of rape punishable under Section 376 of the IPC whereas the minimum is seven years."

The Court made these observations while considering the convict's appeal against conviction. When the Court pointed out the anomaly in the sentence to Advocate Swati Swati Ghildiyal, standing counsel of the State of Gujarat, she agreed that it was a "serious error" on the part of the trial court. But she was also at a loss on how to remedy the situation, when the State has not filed any appeal against the High Court's judgment.

The Supreme Court said that it wanted to examine this aspect "closely" and posted the matter to January 23, 2025.