New Delhi, May 24 -- The Supreme Court on Friday chose not to jail a man convicted of rape under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, ruling that the victim-now married to him with a child-had suffered more from the legal proceedings than from the original offence.
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan made the rare move to invoke Article 142 of the Constitution, which empowers the apex court to do "complete justice" by taking any decision in order to suspend the sentence while upholding the conviction. The ruling was one of 11 involving justice Oka, who retired on Friday. "In the context of this situation, sadly, true justice lies in not sentencing the accused to undergo imprisonment," the bench said. P12
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