5 months ago
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The Supreme Court connected Thursday (December 11, 2025) said criminals who forcibly administer acerb to their victims, mostly women, successful abusive marital homes merit punishment much stringent than nether anti-terror laws specified arsenic the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant was proceeding a petition filed by an acerb onslaught survivor, Shaheen Malik, seeking specifically to bring survivors who were made to ingest acid, and with a transgression lawsuit registered against their attackers, to beryllium brought nether the protective umbrella of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
The Chief Justice asked the Centre to alteration the penal and bail laws to punish the perpetrators of this “most ruthless, astir heinous” of crimes. It said the authorities should see a broad argumentation model to support the survivors, who, adjacent if they survive, necessitate extended and continuous aesculapian treatment. The tribunal said the accused, recovered guilty, indispensable beryllium made to wage a hefty punishment to their victims.
The Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said specified crimes were a effect of sheer “animal instinct”.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi, the different justice connected the Bench, explained that survivors made to ingest acerb would person nary disposable marks connected the body, but their captious organs would beryllium corroded. They would necessitate vital, semipermanent attraction which a idiosyncratic from a little income inheritance would not beryllium capable to afford.
“These radical who grounds specified barbarism connected a chap quality being person nary close to roam astir successful society. They are a menace to nine and to the regularisation of the law. Their punishment should beryllium much stringent than nether the UAPA,” Chief Justice Kant observed.
In the erstwhile proceeding connected December 4, the apex tribunal was shocked to larn that the proceedings successful Ms. Malik’s lawsuit was pending adjacent aft 16 years. Ms. Malik, who was past 26 and pursuing MBA, was attacked extracurricular her workplace. She had reportedly undergone 25 reconstructive surgeries. She went connected to acceptable up Brave Souls successful 2021, which dispersed arsenic a pan-India question offering aesculapian and ineligible enactment to acerb onslaught survivors.
On Thursday, the tribunal said steps indispensable beryllium taken to implicit the proceedings successful the lawsuit by December 31.
