India's federal government Saturday approved an ordinance (emergency executive order) to allow courts to award death penalty to child rapists.
"Today, the cabinet approved the promulgation of an ordinance to allow courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age," an official said.
"The criminal law amendment ordinance seeks to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to introduce a new provision to sentence convicts of such crimes punishment of death."
The decision was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his return from a five-day foreign trip.
The decision comes in the backdrop of massive public outrage following rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Indian-controlled Kashmir's Kathua district.
Source: Xinhua