If you chop off a limb, people will follow law: Karnataka HC

BENGALURU: Karnataka high court refused bail to a 23-year-old engineering student accused of rape and triggered a debate over judicial rhetoric and criminal justice in a constitutional democracy after a judge said “law has lost its teeth” and suggested harsher punishments could deter crime.

“Law has lost its teeth because we don’t deal with offenders firmly. If you chop off a leg or a hand, then people will, perhaps, realise to comply with law. Because we have a democracy, everybody takes advantage of it,” Justice R Nataraj said during a hearing on the student’s bail plea. The accused has been in judicial custody since early April and faces allegations of sexually assaulting a former classmate in 2023.

The judge also said that crimes were being committed casually because offenders were not dealt with firmly and contrasted the situation with punishments in some West Asian countries.

The defence argued the student had spent nearly two months in jail for an offence he allegedly did not commit and that the allegations related to events nearly three years old. The judge said: “If you eat salt, you got to drink water. Let him stay for another four-five days. Let him get used to prison. Who knows if you are punished, you may have to go back (to jail).”

HC issued a notice to state govt and posted the matter for hearing on June 8. Police said the accused had asked the woman to accompany him to an apartment on the pretext of discussing their friendship and sexually assaulted her on Sept 12, 2023. She first approached the National Commission for Women before filing a police complaint.