Cabinet clears ordinance on death penalty for convicts in child rape cases

The punishment for gang rape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for the rest of life, officials said

The Union Cabinet on Saturday approved an ordinance to mete out stringent punishment to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years of age, amid a nation-wide outrage over the cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua and Surat and the rape of a girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. 

       

The ordinance has prescribed measures as part of a mission mode project to be rolled out in three months.

New fast-track courts will be set up to deal with such cases and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all