Syed Zia Ul Hasan Naqvi: It true, sex is a natural instinct of human beings like other creatures. Every human being has a natural urge for sex. It is as essential for every individual as air, water and food. In our country sexual relation is permitted only in between those who are married to each other. In most of the countries, sexual relations between, who are not married to each other is not only illegal but immoral also. Illegal sex indulgence is regarded an act of moral turpitude and according to religion it is a great sin, In law it is a heinous crime. Law has nothing to do with the status of a culprit. If any person has committed a crime, which is proved beyond doubt then he should be punished without any consideration of his status.

For punishment mainly we have five theories:

· Preventive Theory:-According to this theory punishment is awarded with a view to prevent the offender from repeating the offence in future.

· Deterrent Theory:-According to this punishment to the wrongdoer must not only creative an awe not only in the mind of culprit but in the minds of other persons also.

· Retributive Theory: - The origin of this theory lies in the primitive notion of Vengeance against the wrongdoers.

· Expiatory Theory: - This theory says that by undergoing punishment this crime is expiated. According to the exponents of this theory punishment make the criminal to expiate.

· Reformative Theory: - According to this theory the purpose of punishment should be to reform the criminal.

In the light of above mentioned theories the high ups involved in the sex cases should be given severe punishment so that no other person can dare to repeat such heinous crimes.

Devendra Khurana: Punishment meted out to high ups in sex cases should be in accordance with Indian criminal laws. This is as short as it can get. It has to be examined in detail as to what is the origin of such practices. Where exactly it emanates from? Whether this is a bailable offence or not, that would be decided by the judiciary and by the law of the land.

Alok Diwan: "If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. (From the NIV Bible, Deuteronomy 22:28)" and Islam believes in Stone him to death. How can a rape victim live her life with that rapist? And what is the significance to kill the offender? The unfortunate part of Section 375 of the IPC 1860 is that the law is very restricted and limited in its definition about rape. To kill the culprit is not the solution. The convicted can be made to reimburse the victim or her family by his income through employment or community services.

Why should the rapist be killed with an agony of just few seconds contrary to the victim who in a social order like ours would still live with so much ignominy and un-acceptance? If the girl has to continue with this disgrace throughout her life, let the rapist also live with the stigma of rapist. He should be made to suffer equally, if not to avenge then at least to strike a balance.

SS Chitwadgi: Before I set out to write on the topic I would like to congratulate the Central Chronicle to put this topic for debate. This is a very high social problem in the country, often defying legal steps. These high ups are generally so clever that they see that they are not brought under legal net. In other words they have enough wisdom backed by very high wealth resulting in equally high status in the society. Even if caught, they manage to come out free, but this debate continues to be valid because the question is what punishment should be meted out to high ups in sex cases? High ups are no doubt shameful and they face any amount of media criticisms, and they often see that the media is corrupted.

The fact of the matter is that people deserve punishment, but only when the courts have tried with evidences and proved guilty. Let us presume that the guilty person is legally proved guilty through the efforts of government pleaders. What then? There are punishments prescribed in law but are they adequate? I have in mind several high ups involved, so high that there was no iota of doubt that they would get involved, but truly they are involved and the question is what could be the appropriate punishment.

I propose, probably more right than wrong, every guilty should be got completely excluded from the noble social society once for all till he leaves this pious world, in other words he deserves life long term jail plus all his property confiscated. So once for all one who indulges in criminal sex cases, though how so ever big, deserves to be driven out of the sacred civil society. This would stand as an example for those who are likely to follow similar sex abuses.

All this is easily said more, than the judiciary could struggle hard to clean the society from such criminals, who often claim falsely the big status in society but they are dangerous to our wives, mothers, sisters, and other ladies, freedom loving belonging to holy mankind, who are instrumental in the bringing up of the future healthy generations, proud of ancient highly cultured civilized Indian society.

KAN Talpasai: The query about the deserving punishment to be meted out to high ups in sex cases servers no useful purpose except generating wishful thinking. The punishment to be meted out in such cases is well defined in the law of the land.

But big wigs exercise enormous influence in tilting the balance of the criminal-justice system in their favour. They can hire masters of the legal loopholes of the criminal-justice system and get away with whatever they do. The print and electronic media derives advantage to fill up their spaces and time- slots respectively for furthering their commercial interests.

If I remember correctly, Ramjatwalani, a noted criminal lawyer in the context of pleading a case of Sankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati ji observed that it was absurd and unjust to apply the law of the land to all sections of the society in equal measure. The victim gets solace in his age old belief that the criminal would ultimately face his music and get his comeuppance.

RK Kutty: Even if any form of exemplary punishment is thought of for such high ups, it cannot be meted out to them, as the jurisprudence in our country is totally favouring them.

Deep down south in Kerala, there are two infamous sex-related cases which attracted attention of the people of the whole country through media's role but the persons involved in them- ex-minister Kunjalikutty of the Muslim League (Ice cream parlour case) and another ex-minister and now nominee of the Congress for Rajya Sabha- PJ Kurien (in the infamous Suryanelli rape case). Of these, though Kunjalikutty got a reprieve from the lower court, as all the 16 persons reported to have involvement in it have been absolved of all charges but the people's court gave an exemplary punishment to Kunjalikutty and his party electorally. He has now resigned from the general secretaryship of the party. Moreover, the recently elected Left Front govt filed a revision petition in the high court of Kerala against the lower court's verdict. The elevation of PJ Kurien through back door into the upper House needs no elaboration as he, being a master of art in more ways than one, has got the right connections at the right places to come out of any shameful allegations against him.

Now that a sex scandal is raging in J&K where several ministers, senior Govt officials have been caught. In fact, they should have been paraded naked with their faces not blackened, but uncovered. The irony is that the Indian legal system does not allow such open displays as we have got a wonderful loophole in our law that `no one can be accused unless proved guilty in a court of law'. But the irony of ironies is that very rarely one is proved guilty in any court as the court demands proof- men, material or circumstantial evidences- all these can be liquidated if one has the money, muzzle and the mafia links. Though the Govt of India is now contemplating to amend and elaborate the very scope of the word `rape' described in the IPC, but the problem will remain same as long as some way is found out to ensure a foolproof jurisprudence in our country. As long as we have prosecution and defence lawyers who go to any extent to prove that coconut tree produces mangoes and vice versa, the present system will continue until when a true judge, who passes judgements `without looking at anyone's faces', comes and clears all the mess.

NR Dwivedi: Nature had imbued humanity with sex for the purpose of creation and procreation to keep human race intact. Urge for sexual intercourse was to bestir people to perform the appointed task. To discipline and restrict free and unfettered use of sex, the institution of marriage between man and woman was devised. Common men and women by and large adhere to this position.

The high ups consider their birthright with authority they possess to cultivate sexual relations with women of their liking, not afraid of any punishment, for their actions on account of authority at their command. As for punishment to them, criminal prosecution and jail term is not going to reform them for on completion of the term they might indulge in the racket with renewed vigour. Such being the case, punishment for sexual offences should be capital meaning making the culprits unfit for indulging in sexual offences. As such the capital punishment by law for them should be their castration. This would be exemplary punishment for desisting high ups for indulging in sexual misuse of their power and authority.

Although in 21st century it may appear to be brutal and inhuman since bitter pill has to be swallowed for serious diseases.

Necessary action may be taken to amend the law provided for the capital punishment mentioned above.

Arun Singh: How can we say as to what punishment should be given to the higher-up accused in sex cases. It is for the courts to decide the quantum of punishment to be meted out to breakers of laws.

Whatever the punishment, it should be such that other higher-ups fear to misuse their position in exploiting the gullible women. Even the lower class people should not be easily let off in such crimes. The higher-ups of the society have a bigger role to play.

The society should ponder and realize that we are treating the effects and not the causes of problems. To every cause there is an effect. Inordinate lusts start developing in small children. It goes on intensifying and firms up in the minds in absence of good knowledge and purposes of living.

A close examination at things indicates that there is emphasis on sex in most of the things- movies promote illegal sex, magazines and papers promote pornography, there are dance bars, revelry, lasciviousness. Hence a child should be guided properly from his early days by his parents and teachers.

God is the great giver! God's law-His basic way of life- is outflowing love. But Satan has led a deceived world to call lust `love'- to call sin OK- to call wrong right- to turn God's value upside down. Hence the basic way of God's law is the way of give as opposed to the way of `get'.

Krishan Chander Mouli: Sex is as serene and a blissful experience as is sensitive and delicate.

But when sex becomes a crime though it still continues to be a sensitive and delicate issue it results in an abhorring and condemnable act. It hardly makes any difference whether such crime is committed by a high-up or a low-down in the society because moral and code of ethics in sexual matters are the same.

By high-ups if we mean educated (not literate), white collar position holding persons, religious preachers, opinion leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, celebraties etc - then yes- they should be meted out with the severest punishment. The reason is, these high-ups are looked upon in the society as models of civilized, disciplined, law-abiding, god-fearing, value-based, humane and of high moral character. Even if these high-ups are really not so privately, at least publicly they present themselves with that face. And thus when such persons commit, facilitate or abet sexual crimes, they deeply erode the confidence of the people at large and sometimes mentally immature persons start imbibing such immoral acts under the wrong impression that indulgence and liberties are perhaps the essential characteristics of high-ups.

In-fact precisely therefore these so-called high-ups deserve the severest punishment in sex crimes, even if they are only found abetting or facilitating but not really committing.

However it should not mean that in the case of a sex crime by low-down in the society the guilty should not be meted out with the severest punishment. The only relaxation in such cases could be that largely the abettors, facilitators or committers of sex crime under this category are neither models of moral character nor are they popular people in the society to be looked upon with respect or to be imbibed. But even this relaxation should not dilute the severety of the punishment to this class of the society also because a sexual crime whether by a high-up or a low-down the guilty leaves behind the victim in a high degree trauma with a permanent scar and guilty conscience. This situation which can only be experienced, but cannot be really visualised, should always be kept in mind while imposing punishment on the guilty in the case of a sexual crime.