KOCHI: While Governor P Sathasivam’s announcement to set up a sexual offenders’ registry in the state has grabbed wide attention in the wake of the sexual assault on a popular actor, several question marks hang over the implementation of the proposal. Even as society is unanimous in calling for stringent measures to ensure the safety of women and children, former ministers, government officers and constitutional experts have already voiced their concerns regarding the likely pitfalls while enforcing an offenders’ registry.
In his policy address, the Go v e r n o r had stated: “To ensure deterrence, my government will set up a sex offenders’ registry which will maintain all identification details of sex offenders. It will be kept in the public domain.” However, the fear is whether high-profile perpetrators of crimes will remain elusive. Worse, will the innocent turn victims? With several sensational cases awaiting the final verdict even after 20 years, it is debatable how many offenders will find a place in the registry.
The popular demand, if the state intends to bring sexual offenders into the open, is for speedy completion of the judicial process. Going by the dictum ‘presumed innocent until proven guilty’, publication of the directory may result in the infringement on privacy and on the fundamental rights of the accused. Express takes a reality check.