Will Ruchika Girhotra get justice?

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

As the government gears up to reopen the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case after huge public outcry some questions linger; Will Ruchika Girhotra get justice finally? Will Haryana DGP S P S Rathore finally get the punishment he deserves? Will all those involved in the case from cops to policeman be charged? What about Ruchika's school the Sacred Heart Convent which might have been the final nail in the coffin? Will all those responsible be brought to book?

Although there is a huge public outcry at the moment, there is very little expected out of the case as Rathore will be most likely be tried for molestation and not murder although he crime was murderous. What will the maximum sentence that he will get for this, a few years behind the bars at the maimum. Even if a verdict is delivered against him he will surely approach the higher court and getting a bail is a matter of few minutes and few thousand rupees.

There was huge hue and cry about the Nitish Katara, Jessica Lal and Priyadarshani Mattoo cases. Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav who had been awarded life sentence in the Nitish Katara case have appealed in the Supreme Court. Jessica Lal's murderer walks out on a parole and is spotted watching a cricket match. Santosh Singh who raped and murdered Priyadarshani Mattoo has been awarded death sentense but he too has appealed to the Supreme Court.

Can we say that justice has been delivered in the above cases? The family and friends of the victim have just been able to take the case from one court to the other technically. Why is the Supreme Court of India sitting over the judgement? Backlog of cases will be cited a reason but if it is so we need drastic measures to make sure that there is no backlog. We have been talking to Law reforms, what are those reforms and what are they?

Why should we call ourselves the largest democracy of the world when we cannot deliver justice on time? Why should people approach the court and the police when they are victims of a crime? A criminal case in India takes an average of 5-10 years from a lower court to a High Court verdict. This is enough to demoralise a victim or his family. Every case in India should come with a time frame and if the schedule time is extended there should be a valid reason to it. Media outcry and public outbursts won't be of any help in the law is not in its place.