New Delhi, April 2: The Supreme Court has overturned a Delhi High Court order to release a convicted rapist on the ground that he had “redeemed himself in jail” by qualifying for the IAS.

“Such observations were unnecessary and irrelevant. The high court should not have made them. That is not a ground for reduction of sentence in an offence of this nature,” a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said today.

The National Commission for Women had challenged the February 9 order setting aside the conviction of Ashok Kumar Rai alias Amit for abetting the suicide of Sunita Verma. Amit had cleared the civil services exam from jail.

The high court had also reduced Amit’s life term, awarded by a trial court for rape, to the five-and-a-half years already served on the ground that he had “redeemed himself” by qualifying for the IAS.

The commission said this was illegal. “…This is no reason, much less a ‘special’ and ‘adequate reason’, to reduce the sentence and, that too, to a period less than the prescribed minimum sentence.”

Anyone convicted of rape must be sentenced to a minimum of seven years.

“Such an approach has led to the violation of the constitutional guarantee of dignity for women and to great miscarriage of justice… and is also inconsistent with the view of this court that once a person is convicted of rape, he should be treated with a heavy hand,” the commission said.

Sunita, 21, used to take tuition from Amit, who tricked her into a physical relationship on the promise of marriage. He then tried to blackmail her to establish a similar relationship with a friend. Driven to desperation, she took an overdose of sulpha drugs and died in hospital. In her suicide note and dying declaration, she dubbed Amit a “devil” and blamed him for her death.